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Diana of Ephesus. 



THE 

SCRIPTURE HISTORY 

OF 

IDOLATRY, 

SHOWING 
THE CONNEXION BETWEEN THE TRADITIONS 

OF 

PAGAN MYTHOLOGY 

AND 

THE BIBLE. 



ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS. 



BY REV. J. F. BERG, 

PASTOR OF THE FIRST GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH 
OF PHILADELPHIA. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., 

SOUTH-WEST CORNER OF FOURTH AND RACE STREETS 

1838. 



.'■ 



<t> 



*v 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 
1838, by 

J. F. BERG, 
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United 
States in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



zj/// 



Lydia H. Bailey, Printer. 



PREFACE. 



An old historical miscellany in the German 
language, printed A. D. 1728, first suggested 
to the writer of the following pages the idea 
of a Scripture History of Idolatry. The 
work alluded to, amongst a variety of mat- 
ter, highly useful to the Biblical student, con- 
tains a few pages devoted to the subject of 
which this volume treats. Although the Ger- 
man treatise is very short, being merely a 
statement of facts, it embodies no small 
amount of lore, which must have been col- 
lected at the expense of great research on the 
part of the compiler, if the number of old and 



IV PREFACE. 

rare books, quoted in the margin, as authori- 
ties, be regarded as a criterion. This little 
volume contains all that was thought valua- 
ble in the German work, which has been 
used as the basis upon which the author has 
arranged his own materials. 

With this acknowledgment due to himself 
and to the memory of Father " Johann Ja- 
cob Schmidt, Prediger zu Peest und Palow 
in Pommern," the author submits his book to 
the public, with the humble hope and prayer 
that it may, in some small degree, subserve 
his Master's glory. The topics discussed are 
believed to be of special interest to the 
habitual reader of the Word of God, and 
although the subject may be thought un- 
usual, it is hoped that it will prove neither 
uninteresting nor uninstructive. Great sim- 
plicity of style was thought desirable, par- 
ticular^ when Bible narratives are intro- 



PREFACE. V 

duced; and these are interwoven with the 
subject in order to render it more attractive 
to juvenile readers, and lead them to search 
the Scriptures. No commendatory notice 
has been solicited from any quarter previous 
to the publication of the volume, because it 
is preferred that the work should rest entirely 
upon its own merits ; if it is good, it needs no 
recommendation to sustain it; and if any 
thing less than good, it deserves none. 

J. F, B. 

Philadelphia, Oct. 18, 1838, 



A 2 



SCRIPTURE HISTORY 



IDOLATRY. 



CHAPTER I. 

OF IDOLATRY IN GENERAL. 

Idolatry, or the worship of idols, is the act 
of ascribing to persons and things, properties 
which belong exclusively to God. It is an abuse 
of that knowledge of the existence of a Supreme 
Being, which all men possess, and which they 
derive, partly from the internal testimony of 
conscience, and (Rom. ii. 14, 15,) partly from 
the external evidence so abundantly furnished by 
the works of creation. (Rom. i. 20.) When the 
primitive inhabitants of the earth, in haughty 
defiance of the God of heaven, broke his bands 
and cut asunder the cords that bound them to 



8 OF IDOLATRY IN GENERAL. 

him, he left them to the dominion of their own 
folly — withdrew from them the restraints of that 
grace which they had contemned, and as a na- 
tural consequence, " they became vain in their 
imaginations, and their foolish heart was darken- 
ed — professing themselves to be wise, they be- 
came fools," and the climax of their brutish folly 
was, that " they changed the glory of the incor- 
ruptible God into an image made like to corrupti- 
ble man, and to birds and to four-footed beasts 
and creeping things." (Rom. vii. 21, 23.) In 
short, they became idolaters. 

Idolatry has been distinguished as metaphori- 
cal and proper. By metaphorical idolatry is 
meant that inordinate love of riches, honour, and 
sensual pleasures, by which the passions and ap- 
petites of men are made superior to the will of 
God. 

Proper idolatry is giving the divine honour to 
another. Let me try to illustrate my meaning. 
Mr. A. is a wealthy man, and a member of the 
church of Jesus Christ. He attends the house of 
God very regularly on the Sabbath, comes now 
unci then to the evening prayer-meeting, and the 



OF IDOLATRY IN GENERAL. 9 

weekly lecture, and may be seen at the com- 
munion table, whenever the Saviour invites his 
friends to eat and drink in remembrance of him. 
Mr, A. is amiable in his deportment, and his 
character for morality has never been called in 
question by the world — but, according to the Bi- 
ble, notwithstanding his many estimable quali- 
ties, he is an idolater; for he loves money so 
much, and the cause of Christ so little, that he 
will let the poor heathen perish in their blindness 
rather than contribute a small portion of his sub- 
stance to relieve their wants. Mr. A. loves mo- 
ney more than he loves Christ, and this being the 
case, stands charged in God's Word with the sin 
of covetousness, which the Holy Ghost condemns 
as idolatry ; " Mortify your members, which are 
upon the earth — and covetousness, which is idola- 
try." (Col, hi. 5.) And, again — " No covetous 
man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in 
the Kingdom of Christ and of God." (Eph. v. 5.) 
Or, to use an illustration which will be perhaps 
more intelligible to a child. Suppose you are pass- 
ing by a garden, in which you see some delicious 
fruit — the trees hang their loaded branches down 



10 OF IDOLATRY IN GENERAL. 

to the ground — you look around you — no one is 
near and you are strongly tempted to climb the 
fence and indulge your appetite. You lay your 
hand upon the barrier, but something whispers, 
" Stop ! you are doing wrong — no human eye 
may see you, but God is watching you !" You 
hesitate — appetite pleads — " It is only a little 
fruit, and if you take it, the owner will sustain no 
injury," and you decide the controversy for the 
present, against conscience, and in favour of in- 
dulgence. You climb the fence and hurry towards 
the tree — you reach out your hand, and in spite 
of the loud outcries of your injured conscience, 
you break off the fruit and eat. In addition to 
the violation of the eighth commandment, which 
says, " Thou shalt not steal," you have commit- 
ted the sin of idolatry — you have broken the first 
commandment, " Thou shalt have no other gods 
before me," (Philip, iii. 19.) by making a god of 
your belly. 

Proper idolatry is the worshipping any work 
of God or man, such as the sun, or an image 
made of wood or stone. Such, for instance, was 
the idolatry of the Canaanites, who made images 



OF IDOLATRY IK GENERAL. 11 

of wood, to which they prayed and offered sacri- 
fices. How abominable every kind of idolatry is 
in the sight of Him, who, amid the thunders and 
lightnings of Sinai, gave as the first great com- 
mandment, " Thou shalt have no other gods be- 
fore me," may be seen by a reference to some 
passages in the Bible. David, speaking of the 
children of Israel, says, " They did not destroy 
the nations, concerning whom the Lord com- 
manded them. But were mingled among the 
heathen, and learned their works. And they 
served their idols, which w r ere a snare unto them. 
Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daugh- 
ters unto devils, and shed innocent blood, even 
the blood of their sons and of their daughters, 
whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan ; 
and the land was polluted with blood. Therefore 
was the wrath of the Lord kindled against his 
people, insomuch that he abhorred his own in- 
heritance," &c. (Ps. cvi. 34-40.) Indeed, the 
whole history of God's chosen people is a history 
of God's hatred of idolatry. Read Ezekiel, xvi. 
and xviii., and Rev. xvii., &c, &c. 



12 ORIGIN OF IDOLATRY. 



CHAPTER II. 



ORIGIN OF IDOLATRY. 



The prime instigator of all sin, and therefore 
of idolatry, is Satan, the arch-enemy of God. 
The efforts of the Prince of Darkness since the 
Fall, have been directed towards the attainment of 
one grand object, the subjugation of mankind. He 
is emphatically the god of this world, inasmuch 
as a vast majority of the human race, worship at 
his altars, and obey his laws, thus denying the 
God in whose hand their breath is, and entering 
into covenant with hell. It is hardly credible, 
that the grosser forms of idolatry and supersti- 
tion were much in vogue before the deluge. The 
learned researches of those who have investigated 
the subject, seem to prove,- or at least render it 
extremely probable, that Atheism was prevalent 
in the ages preceding the flood, and that instead 
of a belief in many gods, the antideluvians be- 



ORIGIN OF IDOLATRY . 13 

lieved in none. Subsequent to that awful judg- 
ment, which swept a race of rebels from the 
earth, when the descendants of Noah had multi- 
plied, we find that in the course of a very few 
generations, the children of men had again be- 
come fearfully degenerate. As a monument of 
their impious presumption, they commenced build- 
ing the tower of Babel, " whose top should reach 
to heaven," but Jehovah baffled the ridiculous en- 
terprise, and scattered the builders by confounding 
their language. A general dispersion ensued. 
Different companies, whom a similarity of lan- 
guage drew together, travelled in separate bands 
to the various countries to which God in his pro- 
vidence directed them ; and as they were indebted 
to the heavenly bodies for guidance, and deter- 
mined their course by observation on the relative 
position and apparent motions of the sun, moon, 
and stars, it is supposed that they then learned to 
regard these works of the Creator with supersti- 
tious veneration, instead of "looking from nature 
up to nature's God ;" so that in all probability 
this was the first and simplest form of idolatry. 
In support of this hypothesis, the undeniable fact 



14 ORIGIN OF IDOLATRY. 

may be adduced, that the oldest nations all wor- 
shipped these heavenly bodies : for example — 

1. The Arabians regarded the Sun as the Su- 
preme God, and the stars as subordinate deities. 

2. The Persians held all who paid homage to 
images in utter abhorrence, and worshipped only 
the Sun and fire. 

3. The Babylonians worshipped the Sun under 
the name of Bel. The Phoenicians under that of 
Baal. The Scythians called the Sun their lord, 
and swore by it. 

4. The Ammonites celebrated the horrid rites 
of Moloch in honour of the Sun. 

5. The Osiris of the Egyptians was a type of 
the Sun and the heavenly bodies ; hence the ap- 
pellation of "many eyed" which was applied to 
this imaginary deity, as though every star in the 
firmament was an eye, through which their god 
looked down upon the earth, and watched its in- 
habitants. 

6. The Sun was the Adonis "of the Syrians, and 
the moon their goddess, Astarte. 

7. The Grecians worshipped the Sun under the 
name of Phcebus ; 



ORIGIN OF IDOLATRY. 15 

8. The Romans under that of Apollo ; and the 
moon was adored by them under the various 
names of Minerva, Venus, Diana, Juno, &c. 

Chaldsea was the birth-place, and Babylon, 
(the capital,) was the mother of idolatry, hence 
denominated " the mother of harlots and the 
abominations of the earth." (Rev. xvii. 5. From 
this store-house of death, the seeds of idolatry 
were disseminated throughout the East, and soon 
covered it with a harvest of abominations. Greece 
imported them from Egypt, and scattered the 
poison throughout the Western world, until Satan 
had his worshippers under every green tree, and 
every hill and mountain was a high place, from 
which the smoking altars of idolaters cried aloud 
to the God of heaven, " Depart from us, we de- 
sire not the knowledge of thy ways." 



10 PROGRESS OF IDOLATRY. 



CHAPTER III. 

PROGRESS OF IDOLATRY. 

There was one particular in which the wor- 
shippers of the sun, moon, and stars soon found 
their idol gods deficient; they were not always 
visible, and from this they inferred they were not 
always present. To remedy this defect they had 
recourse to images, and vainly imagined that 
after these senseless blocks had been consecrated 
with some foolish ceremonies, they became gods 
that could kill and make alive. This shows that 
when men have cast away the cords with which 
God would bind them to himself, their course is 
only and always downward; the longer the alien- 
ation from God continues, the greater is the de- 
gradation of its subject, until at last his steps take 
hold on hell, and its powers move from beneath 
to meet him. Idols were originally either pyra- 
mids, or rude unshaped stones; as the art of 



TROGRESS OF IDOLATRY. 17 

sculpture advanced, blocks of marble were chi- 
selled into various shapes; but the human form 
was the principal model. The most common ex- 
ternal act expressive of worship was, kissing the 
hand, whilst looking reverently towards the object 
of adoration — but it was not long before the 
images themselves were kissed. To this custom 
the prophet Hosea refers, (Hos. xiii. 2,) "and now 
they sin more and more, and have made them 
molten images of their silver, and idols according 
to their own understanding, all of it the work of 
craftsmen: they say of them, let the men that 
sacrifice, kiss the calves" And again, in the 
well known passage in which God tells Elijah of 
the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee 
to Baal, we find a reference to this custom — " Yet 
I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the 
knees which have not bowed to Baal, and every 
mouth which hath not kissed him" (1 Kings, 
xix. 18.) 

The usual mode of showing divine honours to 

images, was by presenting offerings of flowers and 

fruits, after the idols had been duly anointed and 

consecrated. When the practice of erecting altars 

b2 



18 PROGRESS OF IDOLATRY. 

had become common, animals were sacrificed in 
order to avert the displeasure and insure the fa- 
vour of these imaginary deities. The ridiculous 
vanity of such gods is set forth in Psalms, xcv. 
4-8 ; Isaiah, xliv. 9-20 ; Jer. x. 3-15, &c. (These 
passages will repay the reader for their perusal.) 
Trees and plants, as well as " birds and four-footed 
beasts and creeping things," shared in the vene- 
ration of the deluded heathen, who changed the 
truth of God into a lie, and worshipped the crea- 
ture more than the Creator. 

The grossest form of idolatry was the apothe- 
osis of men, distinguished either for personal 
prowess or any remarkable endowment of body 
or mind. In other words, the heathen made 
gods of their heroes ; after their death, they were 
enrolled among the number of their deities. Al- 
tars were erected to them, their statues were set 
up in public places and worshipped, and in this 
way, additions were constantly made to the cata- 
logue of heathen divinities. Every province, city, 
and family had its peculiar gods, who were its 
tutelary, (or protecting), deities. No doubt the 
foolish superstition of the Roman Catholic Church, 



PROGRESS OF IDOLATRY. 19 

which requires its members to be under the par- 
ticular patronage of some tutelary saint, may be 
traced to this source. But the utmost stretch of 
arrogant folly to which idolatry ever attained, was 
this; that poor mortals, children of the dust, crush- 
ed before the moth — nay, the most atrocious mon- 
sters in human shape, claimed divine honours 
during their life-time, and had temples in which 
they were worshipped ! Such instances are : Alex- 
ander the Great, the Roman Emperor Caligula, 
and Antiochus the Great, of whom we read, (2 
Mace. ix. 8-12), that when on his way to Jeru- 
salem, to wreak his malicious vengeance on the 
Jews, God smote him with " a pain that was re- 
mediless" — " and thus he that a little afore thought 
he might command the waves of the sea, (so proud 
was he beyond the condition of man), and weigh 
the high mountains in a balance, was now cast on 
the ground, and carried in a horse-litter, showing 
forth unto all the manifest power of God. So that 
the worms rose up out of the body of this wicked 
man, and while he lived in sorrow and pain his 
flesh fell away, and the fil thin ess of his smell was 
noisome to all his army. And the man that 



20 PROGRESS OF IDOLATRY, 

thought a little afore he could reach to the stars 
of heaven, no man could endure to carry for his 
intolerable stink. Here, therefore, being plagued, 
he began to leave off his great pride, and to come 
to the knowledge of himself by the scourge of 
God, his pain increasing every moment. And 
when he himself could not abide his own smell, 
he said these words : c It is meet to be subject to 
God, and that a man that is mortal should not 
proudly think of himself as if he were God.' " 



FALSE PEOPHETS. 21 



CHAPTER IV. 



FALSE PROPHETS. 



The great adversary of God and man has uni- 
formly blinded his deluded followers, by counter- 
feiting those institutions of Jehovah with which 
they were acquainted. God had revealed himself 
by a peculiar title, Jehovah or Adonai, i. e. Lord, 
Lord. (Ex. vi., hi. 3-14.) And Satan claimed 
a similar name, and was worshipped as Baal, i. e. 
Lord or Ruler, by almost every pagan nation. 
The idols of the heathen being numerous, are fre- 
quently called Baalim, Lords, or Joves, which is 
no doubt derived from Jehovah, e. g. " And it 
shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt 
call me Ishi , and shalt call me no more Baali ; for 
I will take away the names of Baalim out of her 
mouth, and they shall no more be remembered 
by their name." (Hos. ii. 17). Hence, too, the 
worship of idols and devils is synonymous: for 



22 FALSE PROPHETS. 

which reason Paul writes to the Corinthians, " But 
I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice 
they sacrifice to devils and not to God : and I would 
not that ye should have fellowship with devils." 
(1 Cor. x. 20.) 

Again ; God at sundry times and in divers man- 
ners spake unto the fathers by the prophets, 
(Heb i. 1), and Satan attempted something similar 
through the fanaticism of enthusiasts, devilish ap- 
paritions, &c, and by all the means which, as 
the prince of the power of the air," were at his 
command. It would be altogether foreign to the 
purpose to attempt determining the limits of Sa- 
tan's agency. * This is a vexed question, and like 
the generality of such points utterly unprofitable. 
But we do know that " he now works in the 
children of disobedience," (Eph. ii. 2), that " he 
hath blinded the minds of them which believe 
not," (2 Cor. iv. 4), and that he always has been 
the instigator of wickedness, (1 Chron. xxi. 1, 
John, xiii. 2), ever since the Fall. (Gen. iii.) Of 
this we may be sure, though the serpent's head 
lias been bruised by the seed of the woman, the 
devil still goes about like a roaring lion, seeking 



FALSE PROPHETS. 23 

whom he may devour. (Gen. iii. 15.) If his 
chain has been shortened, he will stretch it to its 
full length, in order to terrify those whom he can- 
not rend. But to return. Satan had his prophets 
also. Jehovah confirmed the message and deck- 
rations of those whom He sent, by signs and won- 
ders; and Satan, to the full extent of his powers, 
did the same by his messengers ; and by means of 
false miracles and the tricks of jugglers and ne- 
cromancers, greatly promoted his cause. Exodus, 
Chapters vii., viii., and ix., furnish proof of this. 
There can be no doubt that the feats of the magi- 
cians had a direct tendency to harden Pharaoh's 
heart, by making him believe that the power of 
Moses' God was no greater than that of the gods 
of Egypt. There are several kinds of false pro- 
phets of whom we read in Scripture, of which we 
will enumerate the principal. 

I. Kosem, a diviner: one who paid particular 
attention to signs, or more properly, determined 
doubtful cases by the lot. To this superstition 
Hainan was addicted. (Esther, iii. 7; ix. 24.) 
The Lord solemnly warns his people against all 



24 FALSE PROPHETS. 

such practices. (Lev. xix. 31 ; xx. 6-27.) There 
were several kinds of diviners. 

1. Those who asked counsel at a stock or a staff. 
" My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their 
staff declareth unto them." (Hos. iv. 12.) This was 
done in various ways. A common method was 
that of spanning the staff, or measuring it with a 
span from thumb to finger, in order to ascertain 
which of two alternatives to choose. Another 
mode was, to write names or directions on different 
staves, and then cast lots to determine which should 
be taken; or the directions were written upon ar- 
rows, which were shot out in order to direct the 
proper road when the way was doubtful. " For 
the King of Babylon stood at the parting of the 
way, at the head of the two ways, to use divina- 
tion ; he made his arrows bright, he consulted with 
images, he looked in the liver," &c. (Ezek. xxi. 
21-22. 

2. A second kind of diviners consisted of those 
who examined the entrails of sacrifices. (Ezek. 
xxi. 21.) The colour, position, or number of the 
entrails was made a criterion by means of which 
doubts were decided. This superstitious custom 



FALSE PROPHETS. 25 

originated in Chaldaea, whence the Lydians im- 
ported it, and from them the Romans learned its 
practice. 

3. Another mode of divination was the custom 
of opening a book of one of their poets, &C, at 
random, and then considering the first sentence 
upon which the eye rested as a divine answer to 
a question previously proposed. I have known 
some calling themselves Christians, practice this 
very divination with their Bibles. But surely there 
is no need of borrowing from the abominations of 
idolatry, when the blessed Saviour has promised 
Spirit of the truth to all who will ask for it, and has 
expressly said: "What things soever ye desire 
when ye pray, believe that ye receive them and 
ye shall have them." (Mark, xi. 24.) And again : 
" If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, 
who giveth to all men liberally and upraideth not, 
and it shall be given him." (James, i. 5.) 

4. A fourth class of diviners was that including 
the interpreters of dreams. They were very nu- 
merous in Egypt and Chaldsea. (Gen. lxi. 8. Dan. 
ii. 2-9.) There is an interesting account in the 
Bible of a very good man who was skilled in in- 

c 



26 FALSE PROPHETS. 

terpreting dreams. His name was Joseph; he was 
the son of Jacob and Rachel. God gave him great 
knowledge, besides endowing him with many 
other talents. He was Jacob's favourite son, and 
unfortunately both for Joseph and his father, no 
effort was made by his parent to conceal the par- 
tiality which was felt for him, and the consequence 
was, the jealousy of Joseph's brothers was awak- 
ened. Their envy was further excited by the 
narration of two dreams, which he with great 
simplicity detailed in their hearing. Xow, al- 
though the artless disposition of Joseph was mani- 
fested by the recital of his dreams, yet he cer- 
tainly evinced very little wisdom in speaking about 
them as he did, particularly as he was already re- 
garded by his brethren with an evil eye. One day 
he was sent by his father to see after his brothers, 
who had gone to some distance to feed their flocks. 
He had considerable difficulty in finding them; 
they had espied him some time before he came up 
to them, and were wicked enough to consult to- 
gether about killing him. Reubeo plead hard for 
the poor boy's life, and prevailed so far as to in- 
duce them to refrain from shedding his blood ; they 



FALSE PROPHETS. 27 

let him down alive into a pit, which was close at 
hand. It so happened, that just at this very time, 
a company of Midianitish merchants passed by, 
and it was resolved that Joseph should be sold to 
them. He was accordingly taken out of the pit, 
and purchased by the merchants for twenty pieces 
of silver ; they then went on, and carried their 
captive with them into Egypt. You may imagine 
the feelings of Jacob, when his sons brought home 
Joseph's coat of many colours all stained with 
blood, and told the old man this was the only ves- 
tige of his darling son which they could find. He 
was in great distress, supposing that his beloved 
child had been devoured by wild beasts ; indeed 
he would not be comforted. Meanwhile the Mi- 
dianites had sold their captive to Potiphar, an of- 
ficer of Pharaoh, King of Egypt. The Lord had 
not forgotten Joseph, but was with him and pros- 
pered him, so that he found favour with his mas- 
ter, who made him overseer in his house. But an 
event occurred which at first appeared likely to 
blast all the flattering prospects of the young He- 
brew : for, owing to a wicked falsehood fabricated 
by Potiphar's wife, Joseph was thrown into prison. 



28 FALSE PROrHETS. 

He might have avoided this calamity, but he chose 
rather to suffer than to sin, and God did not for- 
sake him. Even in the dungeon, the Lord raised 
up friends for him, so that the keeper of the prison 
committed to Joseph's hand all those who were 
under his charge. After some time, two of Pha- 
raoh's principal officers, having incurred their 
master's displeasure, were sent to prison, and 
came under Joseph's care. They each had a re- 
markable dream in one and the same night. You 
will find an account of the dreams, together with 
Joseph's interpretation, in Chapter Ix. of Genesis. 
The event agreed with his prediction. It was full 
two years after this when Pharaoh was troubled 
by strange visions in the night. He thought he 
was standing by the river, when all at once seven 
fine cattle came up out of the water and began to 
feed in a meadow. It was not long before they 
were followed by seven other cattle, which were 
lean and ill-favoured, and these kine eat up the 
others. So Pharaoh awoke. • Presently he fell 
asleep again, and dreamed the second time. He 
saw seven ears of corn come up on one stalk, rank 
and good, and then seven thin ears, blasted with 



FALSE PROPHETS. 29 

the east wind, sprung up after them. These thin 
ears devoured the good grain which came up first. 
Xext morning Pharaoh was in great perplexity, 
and sent for all the magicians and interpreters of 
dreams in Egypt, but there was not one among 
them that could make out what his dreams meant. 
The chief butler, who had promised to remember 
his friend when he came out of prison, was now 
reminded of his neglect, and told Pharaoh about 
Joseph. They send for him in great haste, and 
the king accosts him at once with the matter that 
weighed upon his mind : " I have dreamed a dream, 
and there is none that can interpret it, and I have 
heard say of thee that thou canst understand a 
a dream to interpret it." Joseph's answer is worthy 
of remark. He would not admit what Pharaoh 
said, because the king's words implied that he laid 
claim to this skill just as the false interpreters of 
Egypt did, whereas he gave all the glory to God. 
i; It is not in me, but God shall give Pharaoh an 
answer of peace." God did not put his servant's 
confidence to shame, for no sooner were the 
dreams told than they were interpreted, and Jo- 
seph's predictions were all verified. The seven 
c2 



30 FALSE PROPHETS. 

years of plenty, which had been typified by the 
seven fat cattle, and the seven good ears, were 
followed by the seven years of famine, of which the 
lean kine and the blasted ears of corn had been the 
emblems. Joseph was exalted to be the second 
ruler in Egypt; and during the famine he supplied 
his brothers and his aged father with corn, and 
saved them from starvation. Joseph's history is 
contained in Genesis from Chapter xlii. to 1. You 
may read another very interesting account of one 
who was inspired by God with such wisdom that 
he could interpret dreams which nobody else could 
understand, in Daniel ii. Now all those who pre- 
tended to be able to unravel mysteries of this kind, 
and were not taught of God, were wicked impos- 
tors and priests of idolatry. 



FALSE PROPHETS. 31 



CHAPTER V. 



FALSE PROPHETS. 



II. Meoxex. Under this head are included, not 
only jugglers, who deceived the people by feats of 
legerdemain, but also astrologers, who pretended* 
by means of observations upon meteors and the 
heavenly bodies, to foretell events. They divided 
the heavens into apartments or habitations, to 
each one of which they assigned a ruler or presi- 
dent. This fact develops the origin of the word 
Beelzeboul, or the lord of the (celestial) buildings. 
(Matt. x. 25, xii. 24-27 ; Mark, iii. 22 ; Luke, xi. 
15-19.) The study of astrology was interdicted to 
the Hebrews — " There shall not be found among 
you any one that maketh his son or his daughter 
to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or 
an observer of times " &c. (Deut. xviii. 10.) 

God threatens Babylon with judgments for her 
wickedness, and the prophet Isaiah says in deri- 



32 FALSE PROPHETS. 

sion, " Let now the astrologers, the star-gazers, 
the monthly prognosticators, stand up and save 
thee from these things that shall come upon thee. 
Behold, they shall be as stubble, the fire shall 
burn them ; they shall not deliver themselves 
from the power of the flame," &c. (Is. xlvii. 13, 
14.) Daniel, it is true, gained some knowledge 
of the art, but he did not practise it. Is it not a 
burning shame, that, in the nineteenth century, 
there should be found Christian booksellers, 
who display the monthly horoscope at their win- 
dows? and that in enlightened Philadelphia, there 
should be a sufficient number of heathen to sus- 
tain the " monthly prognosticators," in the publi- 
cation of their silly predictions? 

III. Menachesh. The augur, who found 
omens of good or evil in the flight or screams of 
birds. This was an invention of the Chaldoeans, 
but they did not long remain the sole proprietors 
of the art, for the Greeks and Romans soon be- 
came as much addicted to it as their teachers in 
superstition. Indeed, it was their favourite mode 
of divination. It is believed that this was one of 
the abominations with which Manasseh, king of 



FALSE PROPHETS. 33 

Judah, provoked the Lord to anger. (2 Chron. 
xxx iii. 6.) 

IV. Mecascheph. Magician, sorcerer, or jug- 
gler. They deceived the people by false mira- 
cles — and no doubt, like Jannes and Jambres, 
the opposers of Moses (2 Tim. iii. 8,) at the 
court of Pharaoh, were frequently, by the direct 
aid of Satan, enabled to perform real mira- 
cles. (Exod. vii. viii.) There are accounts in 
the Acts of the Apostles of two sorcerers. At 
the time of the great persecution of the followers 
of Christ, which commenced with the murder of 
Stephen, the disciples were scattered abroad, and 
went every where preaching the word. Philip, 
(probably not one of the twelve, but the deacon 
of whom we read, 1 Tim. iii. 13,) went down to 
Sychar, the metropolis of Samaria, and preached 
there with great power, and by the grace of God 
performed many astonishing miracles, so that a 
great multitude believed the gospel. Among 
those who were apparently converted, was a ma- 
gician, called Simon, " who had bewitched the 
people of Samaria by his sorcery." Simon made 
a profession of faith in Jesus, and was baptized 



34 FALSE PROPHETS. 

-with the other converts. The event proved that 
he was not, at that time at least, a child of God — 
for, when Peter and John had come to the help of 
Philip, and in answer to their prayers, by the im- 
position of the Apostles' hands, the extraordinary 
gifts conveyed by the descent of the Holy Ghost, 
on the day of Pentecost, had been conferred upon 
the young converts, Simon offered to buy this 
power with money. This w r as very wicked — it 
was insulting God to imagine that the Holy Spirit 
could be purchased with money; besides, Simon 
evidently desired this gift to promote his own 
selfish views, and not God's glory. Peter re- 
buked him very sharply — " Thy money perish 
with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift 
of God may be purchased with money. Thou 
hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy 
heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent, 
therefore, of this thy wickedness, and pray God, 
if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be for- 
given thee, for I perceive that thou art in the gall 
of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity." (Acts, 
viii.) 

Whether Simon repented or not, is uncertain; 



FALSE PROPHETS. 35 

it is true, he asked the Apostle to pray for him, 
that the threatened judgments of God might be 
averted, but if he did not pray himself his soul 
must have been lost. There is a narrative, in the 
thirteenth chapter, of another sorcerer, who en- 
deavoured to turn away Sergius Paul us from the 
faith, but the hand of the Lord came upon him, 
and he was struck blind. (Acts, xiii. 8-11.) 

These sorcerers were in direct league with the 
devil, and practised their witchcraft through his 
aid. Now, though it is generally believed that 
Satan has not such power at this day, as he had 
before Jesus died, yet such persons still exist, and 
by false miracles, tricks, &c, they deceive great 
numbers. It is very wicked to have any dealing 
with them, or to have recourse to fortune-tellers, 
diviners, charmers, &c, because, 

1. It is imitating idolatrous heathens. 

2. Such persons are held in abhorrence by the 
Lord, and their very existence forbidden. " And 
the soul that turneth after such as have familiar 
spirits, and after wizards, I will even set my face 
against that soul, and will cut him off from among 
his people." (Lev. xx. 6.) 



36 FALSE PROPHETS. 

3. God threatens to punish those who consult 
them. (Lev. xx. 6.) 

4. It is setting an awful example to others, and 
is often productive of the greatest evils, decep- 
tion, disappointment, and incredible mischief. 

V. Chobhek. Exorcist, charmer. This was 
one who pretended to drive away evil spirits by 
performing certain ridiculous ceremonies ; or, 
who professed to have intercourse with devils 
through sacrifices and offerings. Animals were 
also exorcised. Whenever it was believed that 
a beast was possessed, an exorcist was sent 
for, to drive out the evil spirit, which he profess- 
to be able to effect, by muttering some myste- 
rious and unmeaning words, and going over a 
routine of senseless mummery.- An allusion is 
made to this practice by the Psalmist : " Their 
poison is like the poison of a serpent ; they are 
like the deaf adder that stoppcth his ear ; which 
will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charm- 
ing never so wisely." (Ps. lvrii. 4, 5.) 



FALSE PROPHETS. 37 



CHAPTER VI. 



FALSE PROPHETS, 



VI. Schoel-oeh. One who had a spirit of divi- 
nation, or a familiar spirit. This endowment was 
claimed by women as well as men. There is one 
remarkable instance which you may read, 1 Sam. 
xxviii. Saul acted wickedly in inquiring of the 
witch of Endor, instead of asking counsel of the 
Lord, and God punished him with an awful judg- 
ment for this transgression. When Paul and Silas 
were at Philippi, they were greatly troubled by a 
young woman who had a spirit of divination, and 
who used to come when they were at prayer, and 
cry out, " these men are the servants of the most 
high God, which teach us the way of salvation." 
Paul being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, u I 
command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come 
out of her." The evil spirit immediately obeyed, 



38 FALSE PROPHETS. 

It seems the poor young woman was maintained 
by certain men, who made money by her divina- 
tions, and when they saw that the hope of their 
gains was gone, they became very angry, and 
having laid hands on Paul and Silas, hurried them 
before the magistrate, and accused them of trou- 
bling the city, and teaching things unlawful for 
Romans to receive or observe. This was enough 
in those days to insure persecution to the Apostles ; 
and accordingly, after they had been severely 
beaten, they were thrown into the inner prison. 
No doubt Satan rejoiced that things had taken 
such a turn, and that he could thus be revenged 
on these men of God. But his triumph was of 
short duration. At midnight Paul and Silas, with 
their feet fast in the stocks, prayed and sang 
praises to God, and the prisoners heard them. 
What must the prisoners have thought? How 
strange to hear songs of rejoicing in a place which 
usually resounded with groans and cries of dis- 
tress ! But, after all, it was not to be wondered at, 
for this abode of guilt and wretchedness had become 
a tabernacle of the righteous, and there the voice of 
rejoicing is always heard. (Ps. xviii. 15.) How 



FALSE PK0PHET3. 39 

sweet were those strains which broke the silence of 
midnight, and echoed from the inner prison through 
every cell of that gloomy dungeon ! They 'prayed 
and sang praises to God! They were bloody 
from the stripes they had received, faint and 
weary with fatigue, and their feet being fast in the 
stocks, their bodies were kept in a position which 
alone was distressing in the extreme. Probably 
they had slept a few hours and now awoke, and 
the first thing they do, is not to complain and be- 
moan their hard lot, hut to pray and sing praises 
to God! David says : " At midnight I will rise to 
give thanks unto thee, because of thy righteous 
judgments," (Ps. cxix. 62), and at midnight Paul 
and Silas prayed and sang praises to God! The 
prisoners heard them and God heard them. Sud- 
denly the foundations of the prison were shaken 
by a mighty earthquake, and immediately all the 
doors were opened, and every one's bands were 
loosed. The fetters which bound Paul and Silas 
fell off like the green withes from the limbs of 
Samson. " The right hand of the Lord is exalted, 
the right hand of the Lord doeth valiantly!" 
Every one of the prisoners was suddenly set at 



40 FALSE PROPHETS, 

liberty ; God hereby signifying, that the Apostles 
in preaching the gospel, were public blessings to 
mankind. The jailor, awaking out of his sleep, 
and seeing the prison doors open, drew out his 
sword and would have killed himself, supposing 
the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with 
a loud voice, " do thyself no harm, for we are all 
here." Here was another admirable trait of Chris- 
tian character. Paul and Silas did not count the 
keeper of the prison their enemy, though he had 
thrust them into the inner dungeon, and after- 
wards, to aggravate their distress, had made their 
feet fast in the stocks ! This latter precaution was 
altogether unnecessary ; the jailor might have been 
content, when he had secured his prisoners, (meek 
and inoffensive as they were,) in the hold whence 
they could not possibly escape, without subjecting 
them to the additional constraint of the stocks. 
But Paul and Silas loved their enemies. They 
had so learned Christ that they rejoiced in doing 
good to them, who despitefuliy used them and 
persecuted them. They preached the gospel of 
peace to the trembling jailor, the Spirit of truth 
set their testimony home to his conscience, 



FALSE PROPHETS. 41 

and he with all his house was made a tro- 
phy of victorious grace! What a triumph was 
here. Satan was vanquished in one of his dun- 
geons! He had instigated wicked men to thrust 
God's servants into prison, and was glad when he 
saw that Paul and Silas were fast in the stocks, 
but he could not keep them bound in afflictions 
and iron. Not only were their chains broken, but 
Satan's captives burst forth into the glorious li- 
berty of children of God. How easy it is for 
God to make the wrath of man to praise him, and 
after baffling and breaking the power of Satan, to 
bring light out of darkness and order out of con- 
fusion ! (Acts, xvi.) 

VII. Jiddeoxi. Wizard. We find such cha- 
racters often condemned in the Old Testament 
in strong language, and all intercourse with them 
strictly prohibited. " Regard not them that have 
familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards to be 
defiled by them." (Lev. xix. 31.) Amongst the 
" much wickedness which Manasseh wrought to 
provoke the Lord to anger," it is related of him that 
" he used enchantments, and dealt with familiar 
spirits and wizards." (2 Kings, xxi. 6.) Of good 
d2 



42 FALSE PROPHETS, 

King Josiah it is said : " Moreover, the workers 
with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the 
images, and the idols, and all the abominations 
that were spied in the land of Judah and in Jeru- 
salem, did Josiah put away," &c. (2 Kings, xxiii. 
24.) Wizards pretended to be able to cure or in- 
flict sickness at their option, and in short, to have 
power to reward their friends and punish the ob- 
jects of their malice whenever they saw proper. 

VIII. Doresch-el Hammethlm. Necro- 
mancers. These were false prophets, who con- 
sulted departed spirits concerning future or secret 
things. Such characters are designated in Scrip- 
ture by the term, " those who have familiar spi- 
rits." Isaiah reproaches the idolaters of Judah for 
applying to them instead of to the Lord. " When 
they shall say unto you, seek unto them that have 
familiar spirits and unto wizards that peep and 
mutter, should not a people seek unto their God?" 
(Isaiah, viii. 19.) And again, when God threatens 
Jerusalem by the same prophet, he says : " Thou 
shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the 
ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the 
dust, and thy voire shall be as one that hath a fa- 



FALSE PROPHETS. 43 

miliar spirit out of the ground, and thy speech 
shall whisper out of the dust. (Isaiah, xxxix. 4.) 
The way in which inquiry was made of those 
who had familiar spirits was this. The necro- 
mancer having repaired at night to the grave of 
the dead person from whose soul the information 
was desired, burnt a certain kind of incense, and 
then holding a rod of myrtle in his hand, muttered 
some mysterious words, and pretended to hear an 
answer to his question, coming out of the ground. 
These are the principal kind of false prophets, of 
which mention is made in the Bible. The pre- 
ceding statements show how completely Satan 
had blinded the eyes of the heathen, leading them 
captive at his will. Oh ! how thankful should we 
be that our lot has been cast in a Christian land, 
where the gospel is preached in simplicity and 
power, and that we have God's Word as a lamp 
to our feet, and a light to our path. 



44 ORACLES OF THE HEATHEN. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ORACLES OF THE HEATHEN. 

The various oracles of heathen nations origi- 
nated in the superstitious rites and ceremonies to 
which we have referred in the last chapter. The 
word, oracle, denotes something which has been 
delivered by supernatural wisdom. The term is 
used in the Old Testament to signify the Most Holy 
place, from which the Lord revealed his will to 
Israel. In the description of the temple, which 
Solomon built, we read (1 Kings, vi. 5,) " And 
against the wall of the house he built chambers 
round about, both of the temple and of the ora- 
ele" And again, in the 19th verse — " The ora- 
cle he prepared in the house within, to set there 
the ark of the covenant of the Lord." While 
Israel kept her covenant with the Lord, counsel 
was always asked of God, in difficult or critical 
•circumstances, and then Jehovah directed his peo- 



ORACLES OF THE HEATHEN. 45 

pie what course to take. This institution of the 
Lord was also imitated by Satan. He gave verbal 
responses to his priests, couched in ambiguous 
language, so that, let the event prove what it 
might, the credit of the oracle would still be sus- 
tained. The Lord answered his priests from one 
particular place, the holy of holies, within the 
tabernacle or temple, and Satan likewise chose 
certain places, in which he established his ora- 
cles. There were three w r hich were very cele- 
brated. 

1. The oracle of Jupiter- Ammon, in Egypt. 
This was the most ancient. It is said to have 
been instituted in honour of Ham, the son of 
Noah, and was situated in the midst of the vast 
sandy desert of Libya. Alexander the Great 
undertook a journey to this temple, in order that 
he might be proclaimed as the son of Jupiter- Am- 
nion, through the oracle. This was easily obtain- 
ed by bribing the priestess. 

2. The Dodonian Oracle, so called from Do- 
dona, a city of Epirus, in which it was estab- 
lished. 

3. The Delphian or Pythian Oracle, at Delphi, 



46 ORACLES OF THE HEATHEN. 

in Greece. This was the most renowned. There 
are several points of resemblance between some 
of the orgies of Satan and the institutions of Je- 
hovah, which are so striking that it will not be 
unprofitable to advert to them, inasmuch as they 
furnish additional evidence of the truth, that Sa- 
tan's favourite mode of disseminating error, is to 
disguise it in the garb of truth. 

1. The temple of the Delphian idol was built in 
the form of the tabernacle, and was surrounded 
with curtains of leather, or covered with various 
kinds of skins. 

2. In the vestibule or porch of the Delphian 
temple was an altar, upon which fire was kept 
constantly burning, like that which was main- 
tained on the altar of burnt- offerings in the taber- 
nacle. " The fire upon the altar shall be burning 
in it ; it shall not be put out ; and the priest shall 
burn wood on it every morning, and lay the 
burnt-offering in order upon it; and he shall burn 
thereon the fat of the peace-offerings. The fire 
shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall 
never go out." (Lev. vi. xii. xiii.) This fire was 
called in Greek " hestia," which is evidently de- 



ORACLES OF THE HEATHEN. 47 

rived from the Hebrew " esch-jab," the fire of 
the Lord. Hence we have the origin of the Latin 
goddess, Vesta, upon whose altar the fire was 
never permitted to go out. 

3. The golden tripod, (which was designed to 
represent the ark of the covenant, Jehovah's foot- 
stool or dwelling-place, from which he spoke to 
Moses, Exod. xxv. 21, 22,) was a stool with three 
feet, and like the covering of the ark or mercy- 
seat, was surrounded with a golden crown. It 
stood over the mouth of a cave, out of which the 
unclean spirit ascended into the priestess, who sat 
upon it, who then, as though possessed by the de- 
vil, whilst writhing in convulsions, gave her re- 
sponses with foaming mouth and compressed lips, 
in such a manner that the voice appeared to pro- 
ceed, sometimes out of her body, and sometimes 
out of the ground. 

4. The Pythian orgies were celebrated every 
seventh day, like the Jewish Sabbath ; and every 
seventh year, a grand festival, corresponding to 
the jubilee celebration of the Jews, was observed 
with great pomp. At this festival, the psean or 
song of victory was chaunted ; this anthem com- 



48 ORACLES OF THE HEATHEN. 

menced and closed with the formula, " Elleleu 
la," from which circumstance, Apollo, (the Py- 
thian idol,) was also called Elelleus and Ia'ios. 
This evidently was an imitation of the solemn 
Hallelujahs with which the God of the Hebrews 
was worshipped before the tabernacle at Shiloh, 
on each returning Sabbath and Sabbatical year. 

The introduction of these rites into the worship 
of the Delphian idol, may be accounted for in the 
following way. Some of the Phoenicians or 
Canaanites, who had been spectators at the Jew- 
ish worship, (Josh. ix. 29,) or had, like the 
Gibeonites, embraced it, were persecuted as Jews 
by the enemies of the Hebrews, and in order to 
escape from their cruelties, passed over into 
Greece with a number of their countrymen, and 
having built the temple of Delphi in the province 
of Phocis, combined with their idolatrous rites, 
some of the ceremonies and institutions of the true 
worship, which they had been accustomed to ob- 
serve among the Jews. This temple thus became 
the tabernacle of Satan, and "a breathing hole of 
hell." 



PRIESTS, SACRIFICES, CEREMONIES, &C. 49 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PRIESTS, SACRIFICES, CEREMONIES, &C, OF THE 
HEATHEN. 

The power of the priests over the minds and 
consciences of the common people was very great. 
Of this fact, the idolatrous Jeroboam was well 
aware ; indeed he could not have devised a more 
effectual means for sustaining the worship of the 
golden calves, than by appointing priests for this 
special service. " He made a house of high 
places, and made priests of the lowest of the peo- 
ple, which were not of the sons of Levi. And 
Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, 
on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the 
feast that is in Judah ; and he offered upon the 
altar, (so did he in Bethel,) sacrificing unto 
the calves that he had made : and he placed in 
Bethel the priests of the high places which he had 

E 



50 PRIESTS, SACRIFICES, CEREMONIES, &C. 

made." (1 Kings, xii. 31, 32.) These men greatly 
hindered the prophets of the Lord. When Amos 
prophesied against Jeroboam and Israel, and show- 
ed them what the consequences of their departure 
from God would be, the priest of Bethel, Ama- 
ziah, sent and contradicted him. (Amos, vii. 10- 
13.) It will be remembered that the principal 
opponents of Elijah were uniformly, the priests of 
Baal ; the prophet at length, however, succeeded 
in having these wicked men destroyed. The cir- 
cumstances are detailed at length in 1 Kings", 
chapter xviii. Under the New Testament dis- 
pensation, the Apostles suffered most of the perse* 
cutions which they endured, at the instigation of 
the idolatrous priests. 

The frequent sacrifices of animals, fruits, vege- 
tables, &c, were powerful instruments in the 
hands of Satan in promoting idolatry, especially 
when, as "prince of the power of the air," (Eph, 
ii. 2,) he caused fire to fall upon the offerings and 
consume them, as in the instance recorded in 
Job i. 16. " While he was yet speaking, there 
came also another, and said, the fire of God is 
fallen from heaven, and hath burnt up the sheep r 



OF THE HEATHEN. 51 

and the servants, and consumed them ; and I only 
am escaped alone to tell thee.'' It is true, the fire 
is called " the fire of God," but it will be borne in 
mind, that in a verse preceding this, the Lord 
had said to Satan, " Behold, all that he hath is in 
thy power ; only upon himself put not forth thy 
hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of 
the Lord. 5 ' This plainly intimates that the ca- 
lamity was occasioned through the agency of 
Satan. 

It is more than probable that this power was 
often exercised, in order to confirm the apostate 
Israelites in their rebellion ; for we find that the 
priests of Baal readily accepted the challenge of 
Elijah, and were at once prepared to decide 
whether Jehovah, (1 Kings, xviii. 2-4,) or Baal 
were God, by this simple test. On this occasion, 
the devil was deprived of a license, which had 
been permitted him at other times. It must be 
admitted, however, that deceptive arts were freely 
practised, and that the sacrifices were probably 
more frequently consumed by fire, which the 
priests themselves secretly kindled, than by- 
names lighted by the breath of Satan ; the object 



52 PRIESTS, SACRIFICES, CEREMONIES, &C. 

being always attained, provided the prejudices of 
the people in favour of idolatry were strengthen- 
ed. Fire from the Lord always consumed the 
sacrifices laid upon his altars, and as every thing 
pertaining to a feast was freely brought to them, 
such as bread, flesh, salt, wine, cakes, incense, 
&c, these oblations were frequently called " the 
bread of God." Speaking of the priests of the 
Lord, Moses says, " The offerings of the Lord 
made by fire, and the bread of their God they do 
offer," — " thou shalt sanctify him therefore ; for 
he offereth the bread of thy God, he shall be holy 
unto thee," &c. (Lev. xxi. 6, 8, 17,22.) Again — 
" Neither from a stranger's hand shall ye offer 
the bread of your God." (Lev. xxii. 25.) This 
latter command Ezekiel upbraids Israel with hav- 
ing transgressed — " Ye have brought into my 
sanctuary strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and 
uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to 
pollute it, even my house, when ye offer my 
breads &c. (Ezek. xliv. 7 ; Conf. Mai. i. 7 ; Ps. 
I. 10; Is. xlvi. 16.) The oblations are also called 
" the offering made by fire." (Numb, xxviii. 2.) 
Hence, the heathen supposed that their imaginary 




Altar of Burnt-offering, 



OF THE HEATHEN. 53 

deities devoured the sacrifices ; that they held 
regular feasts, regaled themselves with the in- 
cense offered to them, and sucked up the blood 
of the slain bullocks like flies. The fat and 
choice pieces were laid on the altars of Jehovah, 
but the idol-gods received only the offals, such as 
the gall, the bones, &c, whilst the priests or 
worshippers retained all that was worth having ; 
and thus the devil was disgraced even in the 
honours paid him. Among the various rites 
which were borrowed by idolaters from the Jew- 
ish institutions, was that of circumcision. This 
was practised extensively by the Egyptians 
and Moors, and was through them introduced 
among many other nations, and used as an 
initiatory ceremony. The Sabbath was also 
counterfeited, as is evident from the many festi- 
vals which were celebrated every seventh day. 
The institution of cities of refuge, appointed un- 
der the Levitical law, was also borrowed by the 
heathen. These cities of refuge were intended 
by the Lord as an asylum for those who should 
undesignedly kill any one. In the East, from 
time immemorial, the punishment of murder or 
e 2 



•54 PRIESTS, SACRIFICES, CEREMONIES, &C. 

manslaughter has been, to a great extent, a mat- 
ter not so much of public justice as of private re- 
venge, and the mercy of this institution will at 
once be apparent, when it is remembered how 
blood-thirsty the relatives of one who had met 
with a violent death always were. The refugees 
were safe in these cities. There were three such 
towns on each side of Jordan : " If a man lie not 
in wait, but God deliver him into his hand, then 
I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee." 
(Ex. xxi. 13.) " Ye shall appoint you cities to 
be cities of refuge for you ; that the slayer may 
flee thither, which killeth any person at una- 
wares. And they shall be unto you cities of re- 
fuge from the avenger ; that the man-slayer die 
not, until he stand before the congregation in 
judgment. And of these cities which shall give, 
six cities shall ye have for refuge. Ye shall give 
three cities on this side Jordan, and throe cities 
shall ye give in the land of Canaan, which shall 
be cities of refuge." (Numb. xxxv. 11-15.) 



MYTHOLOGY OF THE HEATHEN. OO 



CHAPTER IX. 

MYTHOLOGY OF THE HEATHEN. 

It is not difficult to trace many of the tradi- 
tions of the heathen to their true origin, and we 
will therefore devote a few pages to draw a paral- 
lel between facts stated in the Bible and the per- 
verted stories of heathen mythology. Owing to 
their proximity to, and their frequent intercourse 
with the Jews, the Phoenicians had acquired some 
knowledge of the true God and his worship, and 
either had a confused recollection of accounts of 
certain miracles, which the Lord had performed, 
or else purposely misrepresented the statements 
they had heard, and mingled with them inven- 
tions of their own. The Greeks and Romans 
borrowed their mythology from the Phoenicians, 
and the garbled histories of the latter were still 
further corrupted by the nations whom they had 
instructed. 



56 MYTHOLOGY OF THE HEATHEN. 

That the heathen had some knowledge of the 
creation — of the state of pristine purity — of the 
fall of man — and of the deluge, is evident from 
the writings of some of their poets and philoso- 
phers ; and we shall therefore leave these general 
facts, and collate a few histories of fictitious per- 
sonages with the accounts which the Bible fur- 
nishes of the original characters, from which the 
traditions were borrowed : e. g. The story of 
Saturn was briefly this. It was said of him that 
he was the son of Heaven and Earth, that he 
married his sister, and became the father of the 
human race ; that he usurped his father's throne, 
and devoured his children. This may all be 
traced to the history of Adam. He derived his 
origin from Heaven and Earth— was married to 
Eve, who was " bone of his bone and flesh of his 
flesh ;" is the common parent of mankind — af- 
fected to be equal with God, and by this rebellion 
brought ruin and wo upon his whole posterity. 
The fable of Pandora was, that the gods had 
intrusted to her a box, in which all the miseries 
which afflict the human race were locked up, 
with a strict charge not to open it ; but that she, 



MYTHOLOGY OF THE HEATHEN. 



57 




SATURN. 



disregarding their injunction, and unable to re- 
strain her curiosity, had taken off the lid, and 
thus suffered all the ills of life to escape — sweet- 
ened, however, by hope, which still remained to 
comfort mankind. It is almost unnecessary to 
remark that Eve is the original of which Pandora 



58 MYTHOLOGY OF THE HEATHEN. 

is the copy. Jubal, the inventor of music is the 
Apollo, and Tubal-Cain, the Vulcan, of my- 
thology. Noah was known to the heathen under 
various names. He is called Saturn. This 
deity was worshipped as the father of mankind, 
and was said to have been the first who planted 
the vine. The period during which he reigned 
was known as the Golden Age, because all men 
were then united by the bands of brotherly love. 
The story of Saturn's having devoured all his 
children, excepting Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, 
with whom he crossed the sea in safety, relates 
no doubt to the deluge, which overwhelmed the 
human race, with the exception of Noah and his 
three sons and their families. 

Janus was another name given to Noah, from 
the Hebrew word Jajin, meaning wine. (" Noah 
began to be a husbandman and planted a vine- 
yard." Gen. ix. 24.) Janus was further honour- 
ed by the heathen, as presiding over covenants. 
This probably originated in the covenant, which 
God made with Noah : "And, behold, I establish 
my covenant with you, and with your seed after 
you; and with every living creature that is with 



MYTHOLOGY OF THE HEATHEN. 59 

you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast 
of the earth with you ; from all that go out of the 
ark to every beast of the earth. I will establish 
my covenant with you ; neither shall all flesh be 
cut off any more by the waters of a flood ; neither 
shall there any more be a flood to destroy the 
earth. And God said, this is the token of the 
covenant which I make between me and you, and 
every, living creature that is with you, for per- 
petual generations : 1 do set my bow in the cloud, 
and it shall be for a token of a covenant between 
me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, 
when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow 
shall be seen in the cloud : and I will remember 
my covenant, which is between me and you and 
every living creature of all flesh ; and the waters 
shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. 
And the bows shall be in the cloud ; and I will 
look upon it, that I may remember the everlast- 
ing covenant between God and every living crea- 
ture of all flesh that is upon the earth." (Gen. ix. 
9-16.) 

Janus was also worshipped as the restorer of 
the worship of the gods, and as presiding over 



60 MYTHOLOGY OF THE HEATHEN. 

agriculture, ships, and navigation. He was re- 
presented with two faces, referring to Noah's 
knowledge of the times before and after the flood- 
Deucalion, Qgyges, Xisuthrus, Prometheus, Bac- 
chus, &c, were the names either of imaginary 
characters, or of real personages, portions of 
whose history were derived from that of Noah. 
Japhet, Shem, and Ham, were the three sons of 
Noah. ♦ 

Japhet was the Neptune of the ancients. This 
deity had dominion over the sea. We read, (Gen» 
x. 5,) of the sons of Japhet : " By these were the 
isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands ; every 
one after his tongue, after their families, in their 
nations." 

The history of Shem, distinguished for his love 
to God, furnished the mythology of the heathen 
with the story of Pluto, who being hated by his bro- 
thers on account of his piety, was made the God 
of the infernal regions. Flam is the Jupiter- Am- 
nion of the Egyptians. Egypt is called the land 
of Ham. 

The anointed pillar, which the patriarch Jacob 
set up at Bethel, in commemoration of the remark- 



MYTHOLOGY OF THE HEATHEN. 61 

able manifestation of the divine presence which 
he there enjoyed, may have given rise to the 
Betylia, which were rude monuments of stone, 
erected by the heathen in honour of the pretended 
apparitions of their gods. Jacob was on his way 
from Beersheba to Haran, or Charran, situated 
in the north-western part of Mesopotamia, on a 
river of the same name, running into the Eu- 
phrates. He had undertaken this journey at the 
instance of his parents, who were fearful that 
he might choose a partner for life from among 
the daughters of Heth, who were idolaters. Re- 
becca had another reason for urging him to 
take this journey. Jacob had supplanted his 
brother, and had obtained by fraud the bless- 
ing designed for Esau, and she knowing the vio- 
lence of her eldest son's temper, was extremely 
solicitous to have Jacob stay away from home for 
a season, to give his brother's fury time to turn 
away. " And he lighted upon a certain place, 
and tarried there all night, because the sun was 
set : and he took of the stones of that place, and 
put them for his pillows, and lay down in that 
place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold a 

F 



62 MYTHOLOGY OF THE HEATHEN. 

ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reach- 
ed to heaven : and behold the angels of God as- 
cending and descending on it. And, behold, the 
Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God 
of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac : 
the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, 
and to thy seed : and thy seed shall be as the dust 
of the earth : and thou shalt spread abroad to the 
west, and to the east, and to the north, and to 
the south : and in thee, and in thy seed, shall 
all the families of the east be blessed. And, 
behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in 
all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee 
again into this land : for I will not leave thee 
till I have done that which I have spoken to thee 
of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he 
said, surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew 
it not. And he was afraid, and said, how dread- 
ful is this place ! This is none other but the house 
of God, and this is the gate of heaven. And Ja- 
cob rose up early in the morning, and took the 
stone he had put for his pillows, and set it up for 
a pillar and poured oil upon the top of it. And 



MYTHOLOGY OF THE HEATHEX. 63 

he called the name of that place Bethel," i. e. 
God's house. 

How sublime was that simple transaction ! 
how solemn was that hour ! Jacob was alone in 
a land of idolaters, and the first altar that had 
ever been built there to the honour of Jehovah, 
was that rude pile of stones, upon which he 
poured his libation ! The first prayer that had 
ever been offered in that region by mortal lips to 
the God of heaven, was that which came up from 
Jacob's heart, and the first pledge of entire conse- 
cration to the Lord's service, which had ever been 
heard in that land, was Jacob's vow, " The Lord 
shall be my God." 



64 MYTHOLOGY OF THE HEATHEN. 



CHAPTER X. 

MYTHOLOGY OF THE HEATHEN. 

Joshua, the renowned captain of the Israelites, 
is the far-famed Apollo of the Greeks. " And 
they had a king over them, which is the angel of 
the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew 
tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath 
his name Apollyon," (Rev. ix. 11,) i. e. a de- 
stroyer, so called from his having slain the 
giant Typhon, &c, &c, the parallel to which is 
found in Joshua's expelling the Canaanites. This 
Apollo presided over the Delphian oracle. The 
story of his conquering the giant Typhon, who 
had an enormous bedstead, finds an immediate 
parallel in the history and name of Og of Bashan, 
of whose iron bedstead we have an account, 
(Deut. iii. 11,) in these words : "For only Og, 
king of Bashan, remained of the remnant of the 
giants ; behold, Ins bedstead was a bedstead of 



3IYTH0L0GY OF THE HEATHEX. G5 

iron ; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Am- 
nion ? Nine cubits was the length thereof, and 
four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a 
man." Now the word Og, in Hebrew, signifies 
to boil or burn, and is synonymous with the 
Greek typho, which means to kindle or burn. In 
this way, Og is called Typhon, or, by transposi- 
tion, Python. Apollo, after his victory over the 
Pythian giant, instituted the Pythian oracle ; 
and Joshua, having slain Og on the borders of 
the promised land, set up the tabernacle at Shi- 
loh. 

The story of Hercules' having destroyed the 
giants, with the assistance of Jove, who hurled 
stones upon them from heaven, may have origi- 
nated in Joshua'3 contests with the Canaanites ; 
for we read, that after the confederate kings of 
the Ammonites had been discomfited before Israel, 
4; it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, 
and were in the going down to Beth-horon, that 
the Lord cast down great stones from heaven 
upon them unto Azekah, and they died ; they 
were more which died with hail-stones than they 
f 2 



66 MYTHOLOGY OF THE HEATHEN. 

whom the children of Israel slew with the sword.' 5 
(Josh. x. 11.) 

Again : the giants were represented as having 
been greatly terrified at the news of Hercules's 
coming, and the same remark is made concern- 
ing the Canaanites and Joshua. The harlot Ra- 
hab tells the spies whom Joshua had sent out, 
" I know that the Lord hath given you the land, 
and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that 
all the inhabitants of the land faint because of 
you." (Josh. ii. 9.) 

The exploits and character of Samson corres- 
pond in many respects with the accounts pre- 
served in mythology, concerning Hercules, e. g. 
It was related of this hero that he killed the 
famous Nemean lion ; a similar exploit is record- 
ed of Samson : " Then went Samson down, and 
his father and mother to Timnath, and came to 
the vineyards of Timnath : and behold a young 
lion roared against him, and the Spirit of the 
Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him 
as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing 
in his hands," &c. (Judges, xiv. 5, 6.) 

Another point of similarity is, the inordinate 



MYTHOLOGY OF THE HEATHEX. 67 

lust of Samson, which eventually made him the 
slave of Delilah and the Philistines ; just as Her- 
■cules became, for similar reasons, the slave of 
Omphale. (Judges, xvi.) The club of Hercules 
is Samson's jaw-bone of the ass, with which he 
slew the Philistines. (Judges, xv. 14-16.) The 
centaurs, hydras, and other monsters, which Her- 
cules overcame, are the Philistines slain by Sam- 
son. The tradition of Hercules' burning himself 
on Mount Oeta, refers to the voluntary death of 
Samson, of which we read in Judges, xvi. The 
Philistines had got Samson into their power, 
through the artifices of Delilah, and having de- 
termined upon making a great feast to their god, 
Dagon, they sent for Samson ; and when the peo- 
ple saw him they praised their god, as though 
their idol had delivered their great enemy into 
their power. Samson's eyes had been put out, 
and now he was brought before them, in order 
that they might mock his misery. There was a 
very great concourse of people on the occasion. 
The house was crowded in the inside, and the 
roof was also filled with spectators : about three 
thousand men, women, and children were gazing 



68 MYTHOLOGY OF THE HEATHEN. 

upon Samson as he made sport. He requested 
the boy who led him, to take him to the pillars 
which supported the house, that he might lean 
against them. The lad did as desired, and Sam- 
son having prayed to God to strengthen him only 
this once, took hold of the pillars, one with his 
right hand, the other with his left, and bowed him- 
self with all his might — " and the house fell upon 
the lords and upon all the people that were 
therein ; so the dead which he slew at his death, 
were more than they which he slew in his life." 
(Judges, xvi.) 



THE IDOL-GODS OF THE CHALDJEANS, 69 



CHAPTER XL 

THE IDOL-GODS OF THE CHALDiEANS, 

The origin of idolatry has been traced to the 
time of Nimrod, and as already stated, the Chal- 
dseans were the first who practised the abomina- 
ble rites, which were so readily imitated by sur- 
rounding nations. Their principal god was Bel us 
or Baal ; called Zeus by the Greeks, and Jupiter 
by the Latins. Hence the name Jupiter-Belus. 
The Babylonians and Assyrians contracted the 
appellation into Bel. It was a common thing for 
them to give the name of this idol to distinguished 
men, e. g. Daniel was called Bel-teshazzar, (Dan. 
iv. 19;) Gideon was surnamed Jerub-baal, (Judges, 
vi. 32 ;) and also Jerub-boschet ; the latter termi- 
nation, " boschet" meaning " abominable," was 
used, (2 Sam. xi. 21,) as a term of reproach to 
Baal. In the same way we account for the va- 
riations in the names of Esbaal, called also Isch- 



70 THE IDOL-GODS OF THE CHALD.EANS. 

boschet, and Meribbaal, known also by the ap- 
pellation of Mephiboschet. (2 Sam. ii. 8, and iv. 
4.) The Phosnicians also used Baal as a sur- 
name: thus we read of Ethbaal or Ithobalus. 
(1 Kings, xvi. 31.) Such names as Hannibal, 
(the grace of God,) Asdrubal, (the help of God,) 
Adherbal, (the glory of God,) &c, were com- 
mon among the Carthaginians ; and we find the 
name Belenus even among the ancient Gauls. 
Thus we see that Bel or Baal, (meaning Lord,) 
was worshipped by almost every idolatrous na- 
tion. Originally, this idol represented nothing 
more nor less than the sun, which rules the day, 
(Gen. i. 6,) and it is for this reason that we so 
frequently find Baal associated in Scripture with 
Ashtaroth, or the moon, and also with the whole 
host of heavenly bodies; e. g. "And they forsook 
the Lord, and they served Baal and Ashtaroth," 
(Judges, ii. 13;) and again — "The children of 
Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served 
Baal and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the 
gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab," &c. (Judges, 
x. 6.) And when the reformation brought about 
by good King Josiah is spoken of, we read, "The 



THE IDOL-GODS OF THE CHALDJ3ANS. 71 

king commanded Hilkiah the high-priest, and 
the priests of the second order, and the keepers 
of the door, to bring forth out of the temple of the 
Lord, all the vessels that were made for Baal, 
and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven ; 
and he burnt them without Jerusalem, in the 
fields of Kidron, and carried the ashes of them 
to Bethel." (2 Kings, xxiii. 4.) 

This false god was worshipped by the Palmy- 
rians, under the name of Aglibelus, i. e. " He 
who discovers or enlightens," as the sun with his 
beams ; or Malacbelus, i. e. king of the stars. 

Nimrod, who is mentioned as bavins: been a 
mighty hunter before the Lord, (Gen. x. 8, 9,) 
the founder of the Babylonian and Assyrian mo- 
narchy, w^as surnamed Belus or Lord ; after his 
death, his memory was greatly venerated in As- 
syria and Babylon, and at length he was wor- 
shipped as the god Bel, and idols of a peculiar 
form were set up as his images. To this Isaiah 
refers, (xlvi. 1, 2,) " Bel boweth down, Nebo 
stoopeth ; their idols were upon the beasts, and 
upon the cattle : your carriages were heavy 
loaden ; they are a burden to the weary beast. 



72 THE IDOL-GODS OF THE CHALD.EANS. 

They stoop : they bow down together ; they could 
not deliver the burden, but themselves have gone 
into captivity." God threatens to overthrow the 
idols — " Declare ye among the nations, and pub- 
lish and set up a standard ; publish and conceal 
not ; say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, 
Merodach is broken to pieces ; her idols are con- 
founded, her images are broken in pieces." (Jer. 
1. 2.) And again — " I will punish Bel in Baby- 
lon ; and I will bring forth osrt of his mouth that 
which he hath swallowed up, and the nations shall 
not flow together any more unto him ; yea, the 
wall of Babylon shall fall." (Jer. li. 44.) 

The temple of Bel in Babylon was most mag- 
nificent. It had the appearance as though eight 
towers were built, one on top of the other. Each 
of these towers was fifty feet high, so that the 
whole height of the temple was four hundred 
feet or one stadium. The foundation covered an 
area of four stadia square, or sixteen hundred 
feet on each of the sides. An .account is given of 
the commencement of this tower in Gen. xi. 2, 3. 
The builders presumed that they could erect a 
tower whose top should reach heaven, but God, 




Tower of Babel 



THE IDOL-GODS OF THE CHALDJ3ANS. 73 

to show them how vain it is " to build the wall" 
without him, confounded their language, and scat- 
tered them abroad upon the face of all the earth." 
Upon the summit of this temple or tower was an 
observatory, from which the Babylonians made 
their astronomical calculations. They had at- 
tained such a knowledge of the science of astro- 
nomy, that when Alexander the Great took 
possession of Babylon, he found observations 
made by them, extending as far back as 1903 
years. Their calculation reached to 114 years 
after the deluge, and to the fourth year after the 
building of the tower at Babel. This temple of 
Jupiter-Belus, Nebuchadnezzar enlarged by build- 
ing edifices on each side, to the extent of two 
stadia; so that its whole circumference was 
twelve stadia, or 4800 feet, 1800 feet more 
than that of the temple at Jerusalem, which was 
3000 feet. This immense pile was enclosed by 
a high wall, in which at convenient distances, 
were gates of fine brass. It is probable that Ne- 
buchadnezzar used the brazen vessels taken from 
the temple at Jerusalem, in the construction of 
these gates. (Dan. i. 2 ; 2 Chron. xxxvl 7.) 



74 THE IDOL-GODS OF THE CHALDEANS, 

Xerxes upon returning from his expedition 
into Greece, razed this edifice to the ground, and 
left it a heap of ruins, after plundering the temple 
of its immense riches, among which were many 
images and statues of solid gold. One of these 
is particularly mentioned by Diodorus Siculus, as 
having been forty feet high, and is probably the 
image which Nebuchadnezzar set up in the plain 
of Dura, which is represented in Scripture, how- 
ever, to have been ninety feet high. (Dan. hi. 1.) 
The difficulty in reconciling the discrepancy in 
these statements, is by no means formidable. 
The Scriptural accounts speak of the height of 
the whole statue, including the pedestal, whilst 
the heathen historian refers only to the image ; 
for it is farther stated, that it was six cubits broad. 
(Dan. hi. 1.) Now, if the height of the image 
alone had been sixty cubits, (or ninety feet,) i. e. 
ten times longer than broad, it would have been 
out of all proportion ; as in no instance is the 
height of the human form more than six times its 
breadth. 

Upon the return of Alexander the Great to 
Babylon, subsequent to his Jewish expedition, he 



THE IDOL-GODS OF THE CHALDEANS. 75 

was anxious to rebuild this temple, and left for 
this purpose 10,000 men, who required two 
months to remove the old rubbish. After this 
had been, with great labour, effected, the further 
progress of the work was arrested by the sudden 
death of Alexander. 

In connexion with the account of the image 
before alluded to, we find an interesting narrative 
of the constancy of three of the children of God, 
whom neither threats nor entreaties could induce 
to bow down to it, and worship like the idolatrous 
multitude around them. The haughty king of 
Babylon had made a decree, that, whoever re- 
fused, at the sound of sackbut, psaltery, and harp, 
to bow down to the great image which he had 
set up, should be cast into the midst of a burning 
fiery furnace, and when news was brought him 
that the three Jews, whom he had set over the 
affairs of Babylon, presumed to disobey his man- 
date, he ordered them to be brought before him. 
They were brought, and Nebuchadnezzar asks — ■ 
" Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedne- 
go ? Do not ye serve my gods, jior worship the 
golden image which I have set up ? Now, if ye be 



76 THE IDOL-GODS OF THE CHALDEANS. 

ready, that at what time ye hear the sound of the 
cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulci- 
mer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and 
worship the image, which I have made, well; 
but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same 
hour, into the midst of a burning fiery furnace ; 
and who is that god that shall deliver you out of 
my hands ?" But they were not to be cajoled by 
promises nor terrified by threats, into disobe- 
dience of the command given to them by the 
Lord Jehovah, " Thou shalt have none other 
gods before me." They refused to worship the 
king's golden image, telling Nebuchadnezzar, 
that if their God saw fit, he was well able to de- 
liver them out of the furnace, and if such was not 
the Lord's pleasure, they would rather be burnt 
up, than violate the law of their God. This an- 
swer threw the vindictive monarch into a greater 
rage than ever; and full of fury, he gave orders 
to have the furnace seven times more than it was 
wont to be heated, and commanded his mightiest 
men to take these three Jews and throw them 
into the fire. It was done — Shadrach, Meshach, 
and Abednego fell into the flames of the furnace, 



THE IDOL-GODS OF THE CHALD.EAXS. 77 

which was so hot that the men who cast in 
the servants of the Lord, were burned to death* 
The Lord in whom they trusted, was able to de- 
liver them, and did save them. The Son of God 
came to their rescue — the flames had no power 
over them, and they walked together with the 
Saviour, unhurt, through the midst of the fire* 
Thus God magnified his power in the sight -of 
these people, and his servants by their steadfast- 
ness were enabled to glorify him. Nebuchad- 
nezzar made a decree, " That every people, 
nation, and language, which speak any thing 
amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, 
and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their 
houses shall be made a dunghill ; because there 
is no other God that can deliver after this sort. 
Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and 
Abednego in the province of Babylon." (Dan. hi.) 

2. Nebo was another idol of the Babylonians, 
from which the names Nebuchadnezzar, Nebusa- 
raddan, and also Abed-nego were derived, (Is. 
xlvi. 1 ; Jer. xxxix. 11.) 

3. Merodach was the name of another of the 
principal gods of Babylon. " Bel is confounded— 

g 2 



78 THE IDOL-GODS OF THE CHALDEANS. 

Merodach is broken in pieces." (Jer. 1.2.) Hence 
we have the names, Evil-Merodach, Mardocem- 
padus, or Merodach-Baladan. The latter person- 
age was probably invested with divine honours 
after his death, and worshipped as the god Mero- 
dach ; though some consider Nebo and Merodach 
as one and the same, because they stand asso- 
ciated with Bel, in almost the same words. (Is. 
xlvii. 1 ; and Jer. 1. 2.) Another supposition is, 
that Nebo was the name of an ancient prophet of 
Babylon, who was deified ; and Merodach, that 
of one of the first kings of Chaldsea, to whom 
divine honours were paid after his death. 

4. Succoth-Benoth was also a Babylonian 
idol, which the Samaritans worshipped. (2 Kings, 
xvi. 30.) " Every nation made gods of their 
own, and put them in the houses of the high 
places which the Samaritans had made, every 
nation in their cities wherein they dwelt. And the 
men of Babylon made Succoth-Benoth," &c. 
The meaning is literally, " The tents of daugh- 
ters ," hence the term has been understood as 
applying, not to a single idol-god, but to the 
temples of Mylitta, or Venus, in which the 



THE IDOL-GODS OF THB CHALDEANS. 79 

grossest profligacy and licentiousness were prac- 
tised by women in honour of this pretended god- 
dess. Perhaps, however, a particular image, or 
even the whole worship of Venus may have been 
designated by this name. 

5. Sesach, or Sheshach, appears to have been 
the name of an idol, worshipped at Babylon. 
" And all the kings of the north, far and near, 
one with another, and all the kingdoms of the 
world, which are upon the face of the earth: and 
the king of Sheshach shall drink after them." 
(Jer. xxv. 26.) And again — " How is Sheshach 
taken ! and how is the praise of the whole earth 
surprised ! How is Babylon become an astonish- 
ment among the nations." (Jer. li. 41.) The 
name, Meshach, which was given to one of 
Daniel's associates, was derived from this idol. 
(Dan. i. 17.) The festival Saccea^ which was 
celebrated by the Babylonians with luxurious 
banqueting, was probably instituted in honour of 
Sheshach. It is believed that the wicked king, 
Belshazzar, held the great banquet of which we 
have an account, (Dan. v.) in honour of this god. 
Whilst in the midst of his drunken revelry, a 



80 THE IDOL-GODS OF THE CHALDEANS. 

mysterious hand appeared, writing on the wall 
the doom of the idolatrous king and the fate of 
his empire, and " that same night was Belshazzar 
king of the Chaldseans slain." (Dan. v. 30.) 

There were many other idols to which divine 
honours were paid at Babylon, whose names are 
now unknown. Their worship was sustained and 
promoted, not only by the priests, but by the ma- 
gicians, astrologers, and sorcerers, of whom fre- 
quent mention is made by the prophets. (Dan. 
ii. 2.) 



IDOLATRY OF THE ASSYRIANS, &C. 81 



CHAPTER XII. 

IDOLATRY OF THE ASSYRIANS, ARABIANS, AND 
PERSIANS. 

Nisroch, an Assyrian idol, was worshipped at 
Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, under the form 
of an eagle. It is supposed by some that Belus, 
or Nimrod, who founded Nineveh, was adored in 
the temple of Nisroch. Sennacherib, the king of 
Assyria, who defied the armies of the living God, 
and in the pride of his heart, vainly imagined 
that Jehovah could no more protect his people 
than the gods of the heathen nations whom he 
had conquered, could preserve theirs, was mur- 
dered in the temple of Nisroch by his own sons, 
after the destroying angel had passed through his 
camp, and slain 185,00(Tof his soldiers, and he 
had returned home terror-stricken and ashamed. 
" It came to pass as he was worshipping in the 
house of Nisroch, his god, that Adrammelech 



82 IDOLATRY OF THE ASSYRIANS, 

and Sharezer, his sons, smote him with the 
sword." (2 Kings, xix. 37.) 

Nergal was an idol of the Cuthites, 2 Kings, 
xvii. 36 ; " The men of Cuth made Nergal" their 
god. They had been transplanted into Samaria, 
in place of the Israelites, who had before inhabit- 
ed it. The word, Ner, in Hebrew, signifies a 
" light," or " fire ;" galal, in the same language, 
means to revolve — or, the word galah, may be 
taken as the root, the meaning of which is, to re- 
veal or discover ; and then we have as the signi- 
fication of Nergal, a revolving fire or light ; or a 
fire which reveals, i. e. the Sun, which, as has 
already been remarked, was adored by almost 
every nation, but particularly by the Chaldseans 
and Persians, whose neighbours the Cuthites 
were. 

That the Arabians regarded the stars as gods, 
and the Sun as the Supreme Deity, has been 
stated in a previous section. The Sabeans were 
a numerous sect among the' Arabians ; and in 
order to distinguish them from the magicians in 
Chaldcca and Persia, they were called image-wor- 
shippers, because they dedicated statues to the 



ARABIANS, AND PERSIANS. 83 

different stars, and presumed that the power and 
influence ascribed to the heavenly bodies, was 
communicated to these images. Opposed to this 
class, were the Magi, or Fire- worshippers, who 
held those who paid honour to images in utter 
contempt. This sect originated in Persia, but 
soon extended their worship into India. Zoroas- 
ter is said to have been the founder, or more pro- 
perly the reformer of this denomination, if indeed 
the changes introduced by him into the popular 
religion can be considered a reformation. He 
was a famous prophet of the Magi, and, like 
Mahomet, an arch-deceiver. According to Orien- 
tal writers, he lived during the reign of the Per- 
sian king Darius Hystaspis. He is said to have 
served under a seer of Israel ; and if this account 
be true, Daniel was, no doubt, the prophet in 
question. Zoroaster commenced his reformation 
in Media. The Magi supposed that there were 
two reigning deities ; the one was Light and the 
author of good — the other was Darkness and the 
author of evil ; but Zoroaster introduced a higher 
Essence, a Supreme God, whom he regarded as 
the maker of light and darkness ; and who, out of 



84 IDOLATRY OF THE ASSYRIANS, 

these, had created all things according to his will. 
This idea was borrowed from Scripture — " I am 
the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God 
besides me : I girded thee though thou hast 
not known me ; that they may know from the 
rising of the sun, and from the west, that 
there is none besides me. I am the Lord and 
there is none else. I form the light, and 
create darkness : I make peace and create evil." 
(Isaiah, xlv. 5, 6, 7.) Wherever his influence 
and principles extended, fire temples were built; 
not only in order to afford greater facilities for 
worship, but also to protect the sacred fire, which 
was formerly liable to be extinguished by the rain 
and w r ind, as the altars on which it was kept were, 
before his time, built under the open sky. The 
followers of Zoroaster uniformly professed to 
worship, not the fire itself, but the god of which 
they considered it the emblem ; and because the 
Sun was regarded by them as the most glorious 
fire, they supposed that the throne of deity was 
established there in its greatest splendour, and, 
therefore, in performing their devotions, they 
were accustomed to turn their faces eastward ; 



ARABIANS, AND PERSIANS. 85 

first towards the Sun, which they called Mithras, 
and then towards the holy fire. There is a mark- 
ed reference to this custom in Ezekiel, viii. 15, 
16 : " Then said he unto me, hast thou seen this, 
O son of man '? Turn thee yet again, and thou 
shalt see greater abominations than these. And 
he brought me into the inner court of the Lord's 
house; and behold, at the door of the temple of 
the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were 
about five and twenty men, with their backs to- 
wards the temple of the Lord, and their faces to- 
ward the east ; and they worshipped the Sun 
toward the east." Zoroaster pretended that he 
had been taken up into heaven — that the Supreme 
Being had spoken to him out of a flame of fire — 
that he had brought back with him from heaven 
the first fire, which had been kindled in the tem- 
ple; and that from this source the sacred spark had 
been communicated to other altars. This was the 
reason why the Persians preserved a constant 
flame, and regarded it as sacrilegious to permit 
the everlasting fire, (as it was called,) to be ex- 
tinguished. Wherever the kings of Persia went, 
sacred fire was carried before them upon silver 

H 



86 IDOLATRY OF THE ASSYRIANS, 

altars. Nothing unclean was used as fuel. No 
dead bodies were burnt by them, lest offence 
should be given to their god, if he were fed on 
carcasses ; their fires were therefore sustained by 
the choicest wood, which w r as anointed with oil,, 
after the bark had been peeled off. They never 
presumed to blow with the mouth upon their fires 
in order to ignite them, but made use of a fan — 
it was death to transgress this rule, or to throw 
any unclean thing into the flames. It was not 
until a late period that the Persians erected 
statues in honour of their gods, and worshipped 
them. This practice was, however, at length in- 
troduced by Artaxerxes, the son of Darius, and 
father of Ochus. The figure of Mithras presented 
in the plate, is one of the most common emblems 
under which the Sun was worshipped. It repre- 
sents a man with a lion's head, holding a torch 
in each hand — a serpent entwining his neck and 
shoulders, overtops him by the head. There are 
four wings to this figure, two of which fall to the 
earth, and the other two are raised towards hea- 
ven. A long fillet, that hangs waving in the 
wind, proceeds out of his mouth. The wings 




MITHRAS. 



ARABIANS, AND PERSIANS. 8* 

denote the swiftness of the Sun's course ; the 
two that are raised upwards, denote his rising, 
and the two which hang down, his setting. The 
■serpent is emblematical of the ecliptic. The 
torches denote the light and heat emitted by the 
Sun. 

Among the various ceremonies observed by the 
Persians in honour of Mithras, not the least re- 
markable was the dedication to it of chariots and 
horses, which were emblematical of the swiftness 
of its motion. The horses were led out on par- 
ticular occasions, towards the east, and solemnly 
sacrificed at the rising of the Sun. The idola- 
trous kings of Judea adopted this practice, which 
was abolished by Josiahu " And he took away 
the horses that the king of Judah had given to 
the Sun, at the entering in of the house of the 
Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-melech, the 
chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and 
burnt the chariots of the Sun with fire." Chariots, 
with four horses, were dedicated to the Sun, be- 
cause he pursues his course through four seasons. 
Chariots of a single span were consecrated to the 
Aloon. Three-horse chariots were devoted to the 



88 IDOLATRY OF THE ASSYRIANS, 

infernal gods, whilst Jupiter was honoured by 
dedicating to him chariots drawn by six horses. 
Another common emblem of the Sun was that of 
a young man driving a span of horses. This has 
been supposed to bear some allusion to Elijah's 
ascension into heaven, of which many heathen 
nations had no doubt heard. In support of this 
suggestion, it has been remarked, that the Greek 
word helios, which means the Su?2, closely re- 
sembles the name of Ellas. We find the account 
of Elijah's ascension into heaven, in 2 Kings, h. 
" And it came to pass when the Lord would take 
up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah 
went with Elisha from Gilgal. And Elijah said 
unto Elisha, tarry here, I pray thee : for the 
Lord hath sent me to Bethel. And Elisha said 
unto him, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul 
liveth, I will not leave thee. So they went down 
to Bethel. And the sons of the prophets that 
were at Bethel came forth to Elisha, and said 
unto him, knowest thou that the Lord will take 
away thy master from thy head to-day ? And he 
said, yea, I know it; hold ye your peace. And 
Elijah said unto him, Elisha, tarry here, I pray 



ARABIANS, AWD PERSIANS. 89 

thee ; for the Lord hath sent me to Jericho, And 
he said, as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liv- 
eth, I will not leave thee. So they came to Jeri- 
cho. And the sons of the prophets that were at 
Jericho came to Elisha, and said unto him, 
knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy 
master from thy head to-day 1 And he answered, 
yea, I know it ; hold ye your peace. And Elijah 
said unto him, tarry, I pray thee, here ; for the 
Lord hath sent me to Jordan ; and he said, as the 
Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not 
leave thee. And they two went on. And fifty 
of the sons of the prophets went, and stood to 
view afar off: and they two stood by Jordan. 
And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapt it to- 
gether, and smote the waters, and they were 
divided hither and thither, so that they two went 
over on dry ground. And it came to pass, when 
they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Eli- 
sha, ask what I shall do for thee, before I be 
taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray 
thee let a double portion of thy Spirit be upon me. 
And he said, thou hast asked a hard thing ; never- 
theless, if thou see me, when I am taken from 
h2 



90 IDOLATRY OF THE ASSYRIANS, &C. 

thee, it shall be so unto thee ; but if not, it shall 
not be so. And it came to pass, as they still 
went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared 
a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted 
them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a 
whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, and 
he cried, my father, my father ! the chariot of 
Israel and the horseman thereof. And he saw 
him no more : and he took hold of his own clothes, 
and rent them in two pieces." (2 Kings, ii. 1-12.) 



IDOL-GODS OF THE EGYPTIANS. 91 



CHAPTER XIII. 

IDOL-GODS OF THE EGYPTIANS. 

The Egyptians were from a very early period 
addicted to idolatry. The Sun and Moon, to- 
gether with twelve other primary gods, which 
were, in all probability, so many constellations, 
were the principal objects of their worship. 
Their supreme idol was Jupiter-Hammon, Am- 
nion, or Amun — evidently derived from Ham, 
who, with his son Mizraim, took possession of 
Egypt and Lybia, and was subsequently adored 
by his idolatrous descendants as the Supreme 
Being. The temple and oracle of Jupiter-Ammon 
in the sandy deserts of Lybia, have been noticed 
in a previous chapter. A similar temple, if not 
more than one, stood in the city of No-Ammon, 
or as the Greeks termed it, Diospolis, i. e. "Jupi- 
ter's city." " The Lord of hosts, the God of Is- 
rael, saith, behold I will punish the multitude of 



92 IDOL-GODS OF THE EGYPTIANS. 

No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods 
and their kings ; even Pharaoh, and all them that 
trust in him." (Jer. xlvi. 25.) " I will pour out my 
fury upon Sin, the strength of Egypt ; and I will 
cut off the multitude of No." (Ez. xxx. 15.) " Art 
thou better than populous No, that was situate 
among the rivers, that had the waters round 
about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her 
wall was from the sea ?" (Nahum, iii. 8.) 

2. Osiris was one of the chief deities of Egypt, 
and, together with Iris, most generally worshipped 
in Egypt. Some authors have alleged that Osi- 
ris is Joseph, the great patriarch, whom God so 
highly exalted in Egypt ; others again affirm that 
Moses was his prototype, and the supporters of 
both theories have drawn beautiful parallels be- 
tween the traditions concerning Osiris, and the 
histories of these two great men. But there is 
one fact, which is too stubborn to be removed, 
and which strikes a death-blow at both supposi- 
tions — for, it is certain, that the worship of Osiris 
was more ancient than either Moses or Joseph, as 
is evident from the circumstance that the Israel- 
ites imitated the ceremonies observed in the wor- 



IDOL-GODS OF THE EGYPTIANS. 



93 




ship of Osiris, in the adoration of the golden calf. 
Another opinion is, that Osiris and Jupiter- Am- 
nion are the same, and that Ham, the son of 
Noah, was deified after his death, and worshipped 
as that god. There is no doubt, however, that 
Osiris was intended to represent the Sun; whether 



94 IDOL-GODS OF THE EGYPTIANS. 

it was, ' that the priests of Egypt, to conceal^ the 
true history of a prince of that name, gave out 
that he was the Sun ; or, whether, acknowledging 
him to have been a mortal who had conferred 
many blessings upon their country, they taught 
that he had been translated to that luminary, it is 
at least certain, they agreed that he had become 
that radiant orb, which diffuses light and heat 
over all the earth, and that divine honours should 
be paid to him. There were several symbols 
under which Osiris was worshipped. That in the 
plate consists of the body of a man, with an eagle's 
head, surmounted by a helmet, on which is a 
figure of the Sun. The eagle's head, no doubt, 
refers to the piercing sight of that bird, which the 
ancients admired on account of its soaring and 
daring flights, calling it " the bird of Jove ;" and 
also because they supposed its vision to be unim- 
paired by gazing at the Sun. But the most com- 
mon figure under which Osiris was worshipped, 
was that of an ox ; and not only were divine 
honours paid to the golden images representing 
this creature, but also to the real animal itself; 
for it is well established, that the Egyptians kept 



IDOL-GODS OF THE EGYPTIANS. 95 

in the temple of Osiris a living ox, which they 
worshipped. In Heliopolis this idol was known 
by the name of Mnevis ; in Memphis, it was called 
Apis. The beast selected as the object of adora- 
tion, was required to have the following marks. 
His body must be all over black, except one 
white spot on the forehead, and another on his 
back in the shape of an eagle, or according to 
others, of a half-moon ; the tuft at the extremity 
of the tail was to be bifurcate, and under the 
tongue there must be a wart. Whenever an ox 
answering this description was found, it was 
brought with great rejoicings into the temple of 
Osiris — there it was kept and worshipped till its 
death, when it was solemnly interred, and a 
substitute, with the requisite qualifications was 
sought. If it happened to live too long, accord- 
ing to their rule, it was drowned in the Nile, 
for the sacred books of the priests prescribed to 
this divinity a precise day, beyond which he was 
not permitted to live ; and if his natural death did 
not occur within the limits there laid down, he 
was thrown into the river. But, when the ox 
died a natural death, they gave it magnificent 



96 IDOL-GODS OF THE EGYTTIAXS, 

obsequies, and on such occasions, were so lavish 
in their expense, that they who were appointed 
for its retinue, not unfrequently ruined their for- 
tunes. It once occurred in the time of Ptolemy, 
the son of Lagus, that fifty talents, or 876,000, 
were borrowed to defray the charges of its funeral 
rites. Sometimes it happened that several years 
elapsed before another Apis could be found. At 
the very time when Cambyses, king of Persia, 
was at Memphis, they had just found a beast to 
suit them, and were exulting with the most ex- 
travagant demonstrations of delight, because the 
god Apis had once more made his appearance. 
Cambyses bade them bring the animal before 
him, and when it had accordingly been led into 
his presence, he stabbed it in the flank with his 
dagger, and laughed the priests to scorn for wor- 
shipping a beast, as though it were a god. 

At a later period, the Persian king, Ocbus, or- 
dered Apis to be dragged out of his temple, and 
after sacrificing an ass to their god, compelled 
the priests to eat the victim. The emperor Au- 
gustus, when requested to visit the temple of this 
idol, replied that he worshipped the gods and not 



IDOL-GODS OF THE EGYPTIANS, 



97 






> 




98 IDOL-GODS OF THE EGYPTIANS. 

dumb beasts. The mode of consulting Apis was 
the following. They who were desirous of ascer- 
taining the mind of the god, previously burnt in- 
cense upon an altar filled with oil from the lamps 
lighted on the occasion, and laid down a piece of 
money upon the altar, at the right side of the 
statue of Apis. Then, having applied their mouth 
to the ear of the god to interrogate him, they 
went away, stopped their ears till they got with- 
out the precincts of the temple, and whatever 
they heard first was received as an answer from 
the idol. 

The children of Israel, when in Egypt, had 
been spectators at the festivals, held in honour of 
this idol, and hence their worshipping the Lord 
under the figure of a golden calf, is easily ac- 
counted for. Aaron made the image after the 
model of Apis, and the Israelites adored it accord- 
ing to the Egyptian custom with feasting, dancing, 
and singing. Moses had gone up to commune 
with the Lord on Mount Sinai,- and delaying some- 
what longer than the Israelites thought desirable, 
they came to Aaron and said, " Up, make us 
gods which shall go before us ; for, as for this 



IDOL-GODS OF THE EGYPTIANS. 99 

Moses, the man that brought us up out of the 
land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of 
him." Aaron consented — perhaps, because he 
saw that expostulation would be useless, or be- 
cause he thought that by suffering them to dis- 
grace themselves, he could inspire them with an 
utter abhorrence of such practices for the future. 
The people brought to Aaron all the gold orna- 
ments they could collect, and he made out of 
them a molten calf. It is impossible to justify 
Aaron's conduct in this particular ; he ought 
rather to have died than connived at their sin. 
God saw them in the midst of their idolatrous 
worship, and his anger was kindled against them. 
He sent Moses down in haste from the Mount, 
telling him that the people which he brought out 
of Egypt had corrupted themselves : " I have seen 
this people, and beloved, it is a stiff-necked peo- 
ple; now therefore let me alone, that my wrath 
may wax hot against them, and that I may con- 
sume them, and I will make of thee a great na- 
tion." But Moses would not let the Lord, long- 
suffering and gracious, alone. He pleads for 
Israel with holy importunity ; reminds Jehovah 



100 IDOL-GODS OF THE EGYPTIANS. 

of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 
and prevails, having power with God; and the 
Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do 
unto his people. 

Moses and his servant Joshua went down to- 
gether, and as they drew near the camp, they 
heard the noise of the people as they shouted, 
and Joshua exclaims, " There is a noise of war 
in the camp;" but Moses tells him, " It is not the 
voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is 
the voice of them that cry for being overcome ; 
but the noise of them that sing, do I hear." 
And now they are near enough to see the calf 
and the dancing. Moses cannot contain his in- 
dignation. He throws down the tables of the tes- 
timony, upon which the law of God was written, 
the first commandment of which, " Thou shalt 
have no other gods before me," Israel had so 
shamefully transgressed, rushes in among the 
people, takes the calf which they had made, and 
burns it in the fire; and having ground it to 
powder, and strewed it upon the water, he makes 
the children of Israel drink of it. The anger of 
Moses is still more excited, when he sees, that 



IDOL-GODS OF THE EGYPTIANS. 101 

according to the custom of Egypt, the worship- 
pers of the golden calf have made themselves 
naked. He places himself in the gate of the camp, 
and calls out, " Who is on the Lord r s side, let 
him come unto me." All the sons of Levi an- 
swered to the call, and Moses sends them out, 
after bidding them gird on their swords, and 
commands them to spare neither son nor brother, 
nor neighbour nor companion, but to hew down 
every idolater they met. 

The Levites did as commanded, and three 
thousand corpses in the camp of Israel testified 
that it is a fearful thing io tempt God, and incur 
his wrath by worshipping graven images. Nor 
was this all. A plague from the Lord fell upon 
the surviving idolaters ; and worse than all, the 
Lord Jehovah withdrew, and refused to go up 
with the people ; but, at the intercession of Moses, 
upon the repentance of Israel, he was entreated, 
and pardoned their iniquity. (Ex. xxxii. xxxiii. 
xxxiv.) 

We find a reference to this, and similar trans- 
gressions, in Ezekiel, xxvi. 18. " But the house 
of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness ; 
i2 



102 IDOL-GODS OP THE EGYPTIANS. 

they walked not in my statutes, and they despised 
my judgments, which if a man do, he shall even 
live in them ; and my Sabbaths they greatly pol- 
luted : then I said, I will pour out my fury upon 
them in the wilderness, to consume them," 



IB0L-G0DS OP EGYPT. 103 



CHAPTER XIV. 



IDOL-GODS OF EGYPT* 



The wicked Jeroboam established the worship 
of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan, in order 
to prevent the kingdom from returning to the 
house of David. " If," said he in his heart, M this 
people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the 
Lord at Jerusalem^ then shall the heart of this 
people turn again unto their lord, even unto Re- 
hoboam, king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and 
go again to Rehoboam, king of Judah. Where- 
upon the king took counsel, and made two calves 
of gold, and said unto the people, it is too much 
for you to go up to Jerusalem : behold thy gods, 
O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land 
of Egypt. And he set the one in Bethel, and the 
other put he in Dan." (1 Kings, xii. 26-29.) 

We learn how it was that Jeroboam acquired 
such partiality for the idolatry of Egypt, by re- 



104 



IDOL-GODS OF EGYPT, 




HARPOCRATES. 



ferring to the eleventh chapter of the same book. 
" Solomon sought to kill Jeroboam : and Jero- 
boam arose, and fled into Egypt, and was in 
Egypt until the death of Solomon. (1 Kings, xi. 40.) 
3. Isis was a divinity of the Egyptians, the 
images of which were made in the figure of a 



IBOL-GODS OF EGYPT. 



105 




ISIS, 



woman, with the horns of an ox. All cows were 
consecrated to Isis. It is well established that the 
Moon was the object adored under the name and 
character of this idol. There was a famous tem- 
ple of Isis at -Busiris. The worship of this deity 
was blended with that of Osiris, and similar cere- 



106 IDOL-GODS OF EGYPT. 

monies were observed in their adoration. The 
goddess Cybele of the Greeks and Romans, cor- 
responded to the Isis of the Egyptians. 

Isis was usually delineated with a cymbal in 
her hand, and a crown, in the form of a tower 
upon her head. The image of her son, Harpoc- 
rates, was generally associated with her, and re- 
presented a young man, pressing his finger upon 
his lips, in token of the secrecy which was en- 
joined upon the worshippers of Isis, whose mys- 
teries like those of Ceres, it was considered sacri- 
lege to reveal. 

4. Serapis was another idol of the Egyptians, 
entirely distinct from Apis or Osiris, (with which 
it has been supposed to be synonymous,) inas- 
much as its worship was introduced 1000 years 
after the period in which Moses lived, and shortly 
before the death of the Egyptian king Ptolemseus 
Soterus, who is said to have brought the know- 
ledge of it from Pontus into Egypt, and to have 
erected a temple in Alexandria, which was called 
Serapa: j eum, in honour of this imaginary deity. 
It is believed that Pluto was worshipped in Egypt 
under the name of this idol, and the figures of 



IDOL-GODS OF EGYPT. 107 

Serapis, which have been preserved, appear to 
corroborate this opinion. He is usually repre- 
sented as a man of a grave and dignified appear- 
ance, preceded by an animal with three heads, a 
lion's head being in the midst, with a wolf's 
head on the left, and a dog's head on the right 
hand. It is well known that Pluto is accompanied 
by the three-headed monster Ceberus, in all the 
symbols intended to represent the ruler of the 
infernal regions. 

5. Baal-zephox. The name of this deity im- 
ports that he was adored as the " god of scrutiny." 
Its temple and image were situated on the shore 
of the Red Sea. When Moses had brought the 
children of Israel out of Egypt, and Pharaoh had 
set out in pursuit, the Lord bade Moses, " Speak 
unto the children of Israel, that they turn and en- 
camp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the 
Sea, over against Baal-zephon : before it shall ye 
encamp by the Sea. For Pharaoh will say of the 
children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, 
the wilderness hath shut them in. 5 ' (Ex. xiv. 2,3.) 
And again : The Egyptians pursued after them 
(all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his 



108 IDOL-GODS OF EGYPT- 

horsemen, and his army,) and overtook them en- 
camping by the Sea, beside Pi-hahiroth before 
Baal-zephon." (Ex. xiv. 9.) The reason why 
this site was chosen for the temple of Baal-zephon 
was, in order that all fugitives from Egypt might, 
by its influence, be detained and hindered from 
escaping. Perhaps it was, with a view to cast 
eternal reproach upon this idol-god, that Jehovah 
commanded his people to come within the reach 
of its pretended power. In sight of this impotent 
thing, Pharaoh and all his host, who pursued the 
Israelites, sank like lead to the bottom, when God 
called back to their accustomed bed, the waters of 
the Red Sea. Baal-zephon was also the name of 
a city. One of the journeys of the Israelites in 
the wilderness is thus stated: " And they removed 
from Etham and turned again unto Pi-hahiroth, 
which is before Baal-zephon : and they pitched 
before Migdol." (Numb, xxxiii. 7.) Here we find 
Baal-zephon associated with the names of cities, 
in such a way as to show that it also was the name 
of a place. 

6. Chiun, or Cijjun, the Persian and Arabian 
name for the planet Saturn, was another imagi- 



IDOL-GODS OF EGYPT. 109 

nary divinity, worshipped in Egypt. " Have ye 
offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the 
wilderness forty years, house of Israel ? But 
ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and 
Chiun your images, the star of your god, which 
ye made to yourselves." (Amos, v. 26.) The 
name under which Chiun was known in Egypt, 
was Remphan, so called by the martyr Stephen, 
who testified that the Jews had learned to serve 
it from the Egyptians. " Yea, ye took up the 
tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god 
Remphan, figures which ye made to worship 
them." (Acts, vii. 43.) 

7. The Egyptians are said to have worshipped 
fire also, under the name, Seraphim. 

8. There were many animals to which at a very 
early period, divine honours were paid in Egypt; 
such as dogs, cats, sheep, oxen, birds, reptiles, 
&c. Whatever living creature was the first to 
meet them in the morning, was adored as their 
god. The images of sacred animals were de- 
posited in their temples. Whoever killed a beast 
forfeited his life. This accounts satisfactorily for 
the unwillingness of the Israelites to offer sacrU 

K 



110 IDOL-GODS OF EGYPT. 

fices in Egypt. " And Pharaoh called for Moses- 
and for Aaron, and said, go ye, sacrifice to your 
God in the land. And Moses said, it is not meet 
so to do ; for we shall sacrifice the abomination 
of the Egyptians to the Lord our God: lo, we 
shall sacrifice the abominations of the Egyptians 
before their eyes, and will they not stone us V 9 
(Ex. viii. 25, 26.) 

The abhorrence of the Egyptians against herds- 
men, whose office, it is well known, was by them 
considered most disgraceful, is notorious; but 
when it is remembered, that shepherds and herds- 
men generally used the flesh of their cattle as 
food, it can well be imagined that the idolatrous 
Egyptians would detest the sacrilegious men who 
were in the habit of eating up their country's 
gods. Hence it was necessary that Joseph should 
prepare the mind of Pharaoh to receive his 
brethren, before presenting them to the king, be- 
cause their occupation had been " about cattle" 
from their earliest youth* " " And Joseph said 
unto his brethren, and unto his father's house, I 
will go up and show Pharaoh, and say unto him, 
my brethren and my father's house, which were 



IDOL-GODS OF EGYPT. Ill 

in the land of Canaan, are come unto me ; and 
the men are shepherds, for their trade hath been 
to feed cattle; and they have brought their flocks, 
and their herds, and all that they have. And it 
shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you, 
and shall say, what is your occupation ? that ye 
shall say,'thy servant's trade hath been about cattle 
from our youth even until now, both we and also 
our fathers ; that ye may dwell in the land of 
Goshen : for every shepherd is an abomination 
unto the Egyptians." (Gen. xlvi. 31-34.) This 
passage of Scripture, (and indeed the whole con- 
text), developes a noble trait in Joseph's charac- 
ter. He was high in power in the land of Egypt, 
was invested with little less than the authority of 
royalty itself; but all the splendour of the court 
of Pharaoh could not make him forget his poor 
old father, or his wicked brethren, who had sold 
him as a slave. Let us learn from this, to leave 
vengeance to the Lord : " If our enemy hunger, 
let us feed him ; if he thirst, let us give him water 
to drink ; for, in so doing, we shall heap coals of 
fire on his head." An infinitely greater instance 
of forbearance and forgiveness is furnished by 



112 



ID0L-C0D6 OF EGYPT. 




'"'"7T^„,,-^=. > TKTrii.T^<^^.v 



DIANA ^LURUS. 
the blessed Saviour. When he hung bleeding on 
the cross, suspended by the soreness of his 
wounds, and the cruel men who nailed him to the 
tree stood around him, mocking and reviling, he 
prayed, " Father, forgive them— they know not 
what they do." 

But to return to the Egyptians. It was even 
customary at one time, to take sacred animals 
with them as tutelary deities, when they went to 



IDOL-GODS OF EGYPT. 113 

war. The figure in the plate is a representation 
of Diana iElurus, who was worshipped under the 
form of a cat. It was well said by one of the 
ancients, that it was a happy thing for mankind 
that the theology of Egypt was not relished by 
all nations, because, had this been the case, the 
world would soon have been inhabited by beasts 
instead of men. 

9. Finally, satyrs or devils were adored, un- 
der the figure of a goat. Under this form the idol 
Pan was worshipped. The most horrible ob- 
scenity and prostitution was practised at their 
festivals. Jeroboam introduced this vile abomi- 
nation also : " And he ordained him priests for the 
high places, and for the devils, and for the calves 
which he had made." (2 Chron. xi. 15.) This 5 
too, in the face of the solemn prohibition of Jeho- 
vah : " They shall no more offer their sacrifices 
unto devils, after whom they have gone a whoring. 
This shall be a statute for ever unto them through- 
out their generations." (Lev. xvii. 7.) 

In the Egyptian plagues, the Lord God threw 
down the idol-gods of the Egyptians, thereby 
showing their impotence : u Against all the gods 
K2 



114 IDOL-GODS OF EGYPT. 

of Egypt, I will execute judgment ; I am the Lord." 
(Ex. xii. 12 ; and Numb, xxxiii. 4.) 

There are three kinds of priests mentioned in 
Scripture as prominent among the Egyptians, viz. 
" Wise men, magicians, and sorcerers," (Ex. vii. 
11, and Gen. xli. 8,) but the distinction between 
them cannot be accurately defined, as they ap- 
pear to have been consulted almost indiscrimi- 
nately. 



IDOL-GODS OF THE PHOENICIANS. 115 



CHAPTER XV. 

IDOL-GODS OP THE PHOENICIANS. 

Baal was the common appellation of almost 
every heathen idol, but it was the proper and 
peculiar name of the great divinity of the Phoe- 
nicians, which was worshipped in Tyre and Si- 
don, and from these cities introduced into the 
land of Israel by Jezebel. Of Ahab it is said — 
" And it came to pass, as if it had been a light 
thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the 
son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel, the 
daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians, and 
went and served Baal, and worshipped him. And 
he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of 
Baal, which he had built in Samaria." (1 Kings, 
xvi. 31, 32.) There was a festival held every 
five years in honour of this idol, which correspond- 
ed to the Olympian games, occurring once in four 
years, and celebrated in honour of Jupiter and 



116 IDOL-GODS OF THE PHOENICIANS. 

Hercules. Baal was known to the Greeks under 
the name of the Tyrian Hercules. The Tynans 
themselves, however, designated their idol by the 
name Melacarthus, which is composed of two 
Phoenician words, melee and kartha, meaning 
king, or lord of the city. The Grecians, having 
noticed some similarity between the ceremonies, 
observed at the festivals of Baal, and those which 
were common at home in the worship of Hercu- 
les, supposed that they were both alike, and hence 
arose the name of the Tyrian Hercules. We are 
told in 2 Mace. iv. 18, 19, " Now, when the 
game that was used every fifth year was kept at 
Tyrus, the king being present, this ungracious 
Jason sent special messengers from Jerusalem, 
who were Antiochians, to carry three hundred 
drachms of silver to the sacrifice of Hercules, 
which even the bearers thereof thought fit not to 
bestow upon the sacrifice, because it was not 
convenient, but to be reserved for other charges." 
Melee and Baal, with the surname Kartha, are 
synonymous. The former meaning " king," the 
latter " lord, of the city." Melee was also used 
alone, like Baal. Ilesychius tells us that Melee 



IDOL-GODS OF THE PHOENICIANS. 117 

was the name of Hercules among the Amathu- 
sians, who were a colony of Tyrians in Cyprus. 
The worship of this idol was introduced among 
the Israelites, more especially in the days of Ahab 
and his successors ; as is evident by a reference 
to the following Scriptures, 1 Kings, xvi. 31, 
(quoted above,) 1 Kings, xviii. 21, where Elijah 
calls on the children of Israel to take a decided 
stand on the side either of God or of Baal: "How 
long halt ye between two opinions 1 If the Lord 
be God, follow him : but if Baal, then follow 
him." 

Jehu, the successor of Jeroboam, after putting 
the children of iUiab to death, and appearing ani- 
mated by zeal for the glory of Jehovah, soon fell 
into the sins of Jeroboam : " And Jehu gathered 
all the people together, and said unto them, Ahab 
served Baal a little, but Jehu shall serve him 
much.'' (2 Kings, x. IS.) Now, although this 
was said with a view to decoy the priests of Baal 
into one place, in order to kill them, and although 
the artifice was successful, yet it is expressly 
stated, that " Jehu took no heed to walk in the 
law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart ; 



118 IDOL-GODS OF THE PHOENICIANS. 

for he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, 
which made Israel to sin.' 5 So that the declara- 
tion which he made in order to deceive the priests 
of Baal, proved in the end but too true. His 
hypocrisy probably did more to promote the 
worship of Baal, than all the altars and high 
places which Ahab had consecrated to that idol. 
The Lord complains of his covenant people 
through the prophet Hosea : " She did not know 
that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and mul- 
tiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared 
for Baal." (Hos. ii. 8.) Temples and altars were 
erected to Baal. (1 Kings, xvi. 32 ; 2 Kings, x. 
21, 23.) " Jehu and Jehonadab, the son of Re- 
chab, went into the house of Baal" &c. Its 
images were set up, as we learn from the 26th 
and 27th verses of the same chapter : " And they 
brought forth the images out of the house of Baal, 
and burned them. And they brake down the 
image of Baal, and brake down the house of 
Baal," &c. Groves were planted to promote its 
worship : " Ahab made a grove" for Baal. (1 
Kings, xvi. 33.) Prophets and priests were ap- 
pointed to maintain its worship, (2 Kings, x. 19,) 



IDOL-GODS OF THE MKENICIANS. 119 

who presided at the festivals of Baal, (2 Kings, x. 
20,) and burnt incense. Jeremiah chides Judah 
thus : " According to the number of thy cities 
were thy gods, O Judah ; and according to the 
number of the streets of Jerusalem, have ye set 
up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to 
burn incense unto Baal." (Jer. xi. 13.) Various 
kinds of sacrifices were offered, (2 Kings, x. 19, 
24,) whilst the prophets and worshippers of Baal 
cut and wounded their flesh, (1 Kings, xviii. 28,) 
and leaped upon the altar, (verse 26,) after kneel- 
ing before the images, praying to them and kissing 
them. (1 Kings, xix. 18.) These details con- 
cerning the worship of Baal are furnished in the 
course of a very interesting account of the means 
employed by Elijah, to rid Israel of the priests of 
this idol. The Lord, in order to punish Ahab for 
his wickedness, had withheld the rain, so that for 
three years there was a most distressing drought 
in the land : " After many days the word of the 
Lord came to Elijah, saying, go show thyself 
unto Ahab ; and I will send rain upon the earth." 
Elijah accordingly went, and when on his way, 
he was met by Obadiah, the governor of Ahab's 



120 IDOL-GODS OF THE PHOENICIANS. 

house, a good man, who had hid a hundred of the 
Lord's prophets at the risk of his own life, at a 
time when Jezebel was persecuting the priests of 
the Lord. Obadiah had been sent by Ahab to 
look for water, for the drought had become so 
excessive that the horses and cattle were on the 
point of perishing. He was rejoiced to meet Eli- 
jah, but when the prophet bade him "go and tell 
Ahab, behold, Elijah is here," he was greatly 
distressed : " As the Lord thy God liveth, there is 
no nation or kingdom whither my lord hath not 
sent to seek thee : and when they said, he is not 
there, he took an oath of the kingdom and nation 
that they found thee not. And now thou sayest, 
go, tell thy lord, behold, Elijah is here. And it 
shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from 
thee, that the Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee 
whither I know not; and so, when I come and 
tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee, he shall slay me : 
but I, thy servant, fear the Lord from my youth." 
Elijah assures his friend that he is sincere in his 
determination to show himself to Ahab that very 
day, and so Obadiah went back to his master and 
delivered the prophet's message. When Ahab 



IDOL-GODS OF THE PHOENICIANS. 121 

and Elijah met, the first word that the king ad- 
dressed to him was, " Art thou he that troubleth 
Israel?" " No," said the prophet, "I have not 
troubled Israel ; but thou, and thy father's house, 
in that ye have forsaken the commandments of 
the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim." Vir- 
tue is as bold, as guilt is cowardly. Elijah had 
been hunted by this wicked king through every 
province of his empire, and yet when they meet, 
Ahab seems abashed in his presence, and the ser- 
vant of the Lord commands, after throwing back 
upon his persecutor the imputation of troubling 
Israel. He bids him gather all Israel to Mount 
Carmel, together with the prophets of Baal, and 
of the groves, 850 in all. He is obeyed. And 
now Elijah comes to the people and asks, " How 
long halt ye between two opinions ?" He calls on 
them to decide whether Jehovah or Baal be God, 
by a simple test. Let the prophets of Baal take 
a bullock and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, 
and put no fire under, and he will dress the other 
bullock, and put kindling wood around it without 
fire, and the God that answereth by fire, let him 
be God. The challenge is accepted — the priests 

L 



122 IDOL-GODS OF THE PHOENICIANS. 

of Baal take their bullock, and lay it on the altar 
in the mode prescribed — and from morning till 
noon " they called on the name of Baal, saying, 
O Baal, hear us ! But there was no voice, nor 
any that answered ; and they leaped upon the 
altar that was made." Elijah now begins to taunt 
them — " Cry aloud; for he is a god : either he is 
talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a jour- 
ney, or perad venture he sleepeth, and must be 
awaked ! !" The silly prophets, supposing Elijah 
to be in earnest, began to cry out louder than 
ever ; and not content with this, " cut themselves 
with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out 
upon them." But all their cries could not wake 
Baal out of his sleep. Mid-day was past, and still 
the wished-for fire had not appeared. They con- 
tinued prophesying until the time of the offering 
of the evening sacrifice, but there was still 
" neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any 
that regarded." After the impotence of Baal 
had been fairly exposed, Elijah calls the people, 
" Come near unto me." The people do as de- 
sired, and he proceeds to repair the altar of the 
Lord that was broken down. Having taken 




Elijah's Sacrifice. 



IDOL-GODS OF THE PHCENTCIANS. 123 

twelve stones, according to the number of the 
tribes of the sons of Jacob, he builds with them 
an altar in the name of the Lord, and makes a 
trench round about it. The wood and the bullock 
having been adjusted, he bids them fill four bar- 
rels with water, and pour it on the sacrifice and 
on the wood. This is repeated again and again, 
until the altar is drenched, and the trench is full 
of water. By this means he proves that he does 
not intend to deceive them by any fire which might 
have been secretly prepared under the altar, 
" And it came to pass at the time of the offering 
of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet 
came near, and said, Lord God of Abraham, 
Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that 
thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, 
and that I have done all these things at thy word. 
Hear me, O Lord, hear me ; that this people may 
know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou 
hast turned their heart back again. Then the 
fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt 
sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the 
dust, and licked up the water that w T as in the 
trench. And when all the people saw it, they 



124 IDOL-GODS OF THE PHOENICIANS. 




PRIESTS OF BAAL. 

fell on their faces ; and they said, the Lord, he is 
the God ; the Lord, he is the God ! And Elijah 
said unto them, take the prophets of Baal ; let not 
one of them escape. And they took them ; and 
Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, 
and slew them there." (1 Kings, xviii.) 

The priests of Baal and of other idols were 



IDOL-GODS OF THE PHOENICIANS. 125 

called Camarim, (corresponding to the Black 
friars of the Papists.) because, instead of being 
arrayed in white, like the priests of the Lord, 
they were clothed in black. They had a house 
appropriated to the keeping of their vestments. 
(2 Kings, x. 22.) " I will also stretch out mine 
hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of 
Jerusalem ; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal 
from this place, and the name of the Cliemarims 
with the priests." (Zeph. i. 4 ; Coll. Hos. x. 5 ; 
2 Kings, xxiii. 5.) 

The name of Baal was actually applied to Je= 
hovah, and in view of this circumstance, the pro- 
phet Hosea was commissioned to say to Israel — 
" And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that 
thou shalt call me Ishi, (my husband) : and shall 
call me no more Baali, (my lord)." It was for this 
reason, that the image of this divinity is called 
" the image of jealousy, which provoketh to 
jealousy." The Lord represents himself as pro- 
voked to jealousy against Israel, like a husband 
against an unfaithful and adulterous wife. Ma- 
nasseh had set up the images of Baal and other 
idols in the temple of the Lord. " He set a graven 
l 2 



126 IDOL-GODS OF THE PHOENICIANS. 

image of the grove he had made, in the house, of 
which the Lord said to David, and to Solomon 
his son, " In this house and in Jerusalem, which 
I have chosen out of ail the tribes of Israel, will 

1 put my name forever.*' (2 Kings, xxi. 7, and 

2 Chron. xxxiii. 3.) " The children of Judah 
have done evil in my sight, saith the Lord : they 
have set their abominations in the house which is 
called by my name to pollute it."' Good king Josiah 
destroyed these abominations, (2 Chron. xxxiv. 
4,) but his successors restored them, (2 Kings, 
xxiii. 37, and 2 Chron. xxxvi. 12.) 

Baal was associated with various surnames — 
e. g. Baal-Zebub, Baal-Samen, Baal-Peor, Baal- 
Berith, Baal-Zephon — the last named was men- 
tioned among the Egyptian idols ; of the rest we 
shall speak when we treat of the deities of the 
different nations who worshipped them. 

Baal-Samex, " the lord of heaven," was an 
idol of the Phoenicians, corresponding to the Jupi- 
ter-Olympius of the Grecians. It was to the image 
of this pretended deity, that Antiochus consecrated 
the temple at Jerusalem, and caused a statue to 
be placed on the altar of burnt-offerings ; of which 



IDOL-GODS OF THE PHOENICIANS. 127 

we read in the books of the Maccabees : " Now, 
the fifteenth day of the month, Cisleu, in the one 
hundred forty and fifth year, they set up the 
abomination of desolation upon the altar, and 
builded idol-altars throughout the cities of Judah 
on every side." (1 Mace. i. 54.) 

And again — "Not long after this, the king sent 
an old man of Athens to compel the Jews to de- 
part from the laws of their fathers, and not to live 
after the laws of God : and to pollute also the 
temple in Jerusalem, and to call it the temple of 
Jupiter-Olympius; and that in Garizim, of Jupiter, 
the Defender of strangers," &c. (2 Mace. vi. 
1,2.) 

Baal-Zebub, " the lord of flies," was another 
Phoenician divinity, the images of which were made 
with heads, representing a fly. The Syrians were 
accustomed to compose their idols of the human 
form and that of some inferior animal. In order 
to cast reproach upon this idol-god, it was some- 
times called by the Jews, Beel-Zebub, " lord of 
uncleanness." The proper appellation, however, 
was Baal-Zebuch, or Baal-Zebuchim, "the lord 
of sacrifices ;" but, in derision, the Jews termed 



128 IDOL-GODS OF THE PHCENICIANS. 

it, sometimes Baal-Zebub, and sometimes Beel- 
Zebub. In all probability, Pluto, the god of the 
infernal regions, who was worshipped by the 
Phoenicians, was synonymous with Beelzebub, or 
the devil. In the New Testament he is called the 
prince of devils. He presided over the infernal 
river, Acheron, a name derived apparently from 
the city of Accaron, or Ekron, where Pluto or 
Beel-Zebub was adored with distinguished honours. 
Hence the oracle of Baal-Zebub at Ekron, which 
king Ahaziah consulted, after (2 Kings, i. 2,) be- 
ing injured by a fall through a lattice in his upper 
chamber, was none other than the temple conse- 
crated to Pluto, in which necromancy was prac- 
tised by such characters as Saul employed. (1 
Sam. xxviii. 8-11.) 

It is not difficult to account for the name of 
Baal-Zebub. Flies and vermin in general were 
regarded as among the greatest plagues of the 
East, and the former were peculiarly objects of 
dislike, because they sucked up the blood of vic- 
tims offered to the gods. According to pagan 
theology, this inconvenience or nuisance was at- 
tributed to the agency of some deity, who of 



IDOL-GODS OF THE PHOENICIANS. 129 

course had power also to remedy the evil ; and 
none could be found more likely than Pluto, the 
author of all evil, and the ruler of hell. It is 
true, nevertheless, that the Greeks had a distinct 
deity, whose business it was to drive away the 
flies, whom they worshipped as Jupiter- Apo- 
mirios. 

Ashtaeoth, or Ashtoeeth, was a goddess wor- 
shipped by the Sidonians. It is related of Solo- 
mon that he went after Ashtaroth, the goddess of 
the Zidonians, and after Alilcom, (or Moloch,) the 
abomination of the Ammonites. (1 Kings, v. 33.) 
Compare also, 2 Kings, xxiii. 13 ; Judges, ii. 13, 
and x. 6 ; 1 Sam. vii. 3, 4, xii. 10, and xxxi. 10. 
She is the same as Astarte, or Venus Urania, so 
often mentioned by profane writers. Ashtaroth 
was known to the Egyptians, and worshipped by 
them under the name of Tsurot, from which the 
Hebrews derived ivshtaroth, meaning " herds," 
or " flocks," — hence, its images had the head of 
a sheep. 

Diaxa, (or the moon,) was also worshipped 
under the name of Astaete, or Asteoaeche, 
i.e. " queen of heaven." The Israelitish women 



130 IDOL-GODS OF THE PHOENICIANS. 

brought offerings of cakes (Jer. vii. 18,) to the 
queen of heaven, in order to conciliate her good 
will and insure favourable weather, (Jer. xliv. 17, 
19,) so that the fruits of the field might be abun- 
dant. Groves and well-watered places were the 
favourite resorts of her worshippers ; and to this 
circumstance the name Aschera, or Ascheroth, 
by which she is also designated, may be attri- 
buted. " And the children of Israel did evil in 
the sight of the Lord, and forgot the Lord their 
God, and served Baalim and the groves," or 
Ascheroth. (Judges, iii. 7. Compare Judges, ii. 
13; 1 Kings, xvi. 31, 32; 2 Kings, xxi. 3, 7.) 
The temple of this idol was known as the house 
of Ashtaroth, in which the Philistines deposited 
as a trophy, the coat of mail and weapons of king 
Saul. (1 Sam. xxxi. 10.) 

The festivals of Astarte, or Ashtaroth, were 
carnivals of licentiousness — the utmost indecency 
and profligacy were practised, and not one of the 
abominations into which Israel was decoyed, 
was more hateful to Jehovah than the worship of 
Baal and " the groves." At a later period than 



IDOL-GODS OF THE PHOENICIANS. 131 

that, in which allusions are made in the Old Tes- 
tament to this goddess, various rites and ceremo- 
nies, borrowed from Jewish customs, were intro- 
duced into her worship. 



132 IDOL-GODS OF THE MOABITES, MIDIAXITES, 



CHAPTER XVI. 

IDOL-GODS OF THE MOABITES, MIDIAMTES, SE- 
CHE3IITES, AMMONITES, AND PHILISTINES. 

Baal-Peor, or Peor, from the mountain of 
that name, towards the wilderness, (Numb. xxiiL 
28,) was worshipped by the Moabites and Midian- 
ites. — " Israel joined himself unto Baal-Peor :. 
and the anger of the Lord was kindled against 
Israel." (Numb. xxv. 3.) For this cause, the 
Lord says to Moses, in the 17th and 18th verses,. 
" Vex the Midianites, and smite them : for they 
vex you with their wiles, wherewith they have 
beguiled you in the matter of Peor," &c. The 
temple of this idol is called the house of Peor. 
(Deut. iii. 29.) It was a vile thing, of hideous 
form, and the most horrible rites were performed 
in its service. (Ilosea, ix. 10 ; Ps. cvi. 28 ; Coil- 
Numb, xxv. 1-3.) 

Some have supposed, and apparently with very 



SECHEMITES, AMMONITES, AND PHILISTINES. 133 




BAAL-PEOR, OR PRIAPUS. 

good reason, that Baal-Peor, and the Roman 
Priapus, were the same ; also, that it is synony- 
mous with Miplezeth, in honour of which, king 
Asa's mother, or rather grandmother, Maecha, 
had instituted in a grove, shameful ceremonies, 
over which she presided, similar to the filthy 

M 



134 IDOL-GODS OF THE MOABITES, MIDIANITES, 

rites practised at the worship of Venus. Asa re- 
moved her from being queen, and cut down her 
idol. (2 Chron. xv. 16.) The literal meaning of 
Miplezeth is, " an image of terror,'' implying 
that all servants of the true God might well be 
terrified at its horrible worship. Idols in general 
are termed, in Scripture, an abomination. The 
heathen themselves worshipped them with fear 
and trembling, as they well might, who were un- 
der the spirit of bondage. 

Chamos, or Che^iosh, was the principal, god 
of the Moabites, who are therefore termed the 
people of Chemosh. (Numb. xxi. 29 ; Jer. xlvii. 7, 
13,46.) Solomon consecrated a temple to this 
idol also, (1 Kings, xi. 7; and 2 Kings, xxiii. 13,) 
near Jerusalem. The ceremonies observed at its 
worship appear to have been similar to the rites 
practised in honour of Baal-Peor ; though others 
suppose that Chamos corresponded to the Roman 
Bacchus, the god of wine. 

Baal-Berith was an idol of the Sechcmites, 
who built a temple to promote its worship. After 
the death of Gideon, the Judge of Israel, who so 
valorously freed her from the yoke of her op- 



SECHE3IITES, AMMONITES, AND PHILISTINES. 135 

pressors, and zealously served Jehovah, the peo- 
ple of God went after Baalim, and made Baal-Be- 
rith their god. (Judges, viii. 33.) Mention is made 
of this idol-god, in connexion with the history of 
Israel in Judges, ix. 4, where it is said that the 
men of Shechem gave Abimelech three score 
and ten pieces of silver out of the house of Baal- 
Berith, to assist him in the prosecution of his am- 
bitious purposes. This generosity, Abimelech 
soon gave them cause to regret, for, owing to a 
quarrel which ensued between him and the Shee- 
hemites, he fought against their city, and having 
forced the outer walls, drove the inhabitants be- 
fore him with terrible slaughter, compelling the 
survivors to take refuge in the hold of the house 
of their god, Baal-Berith, (verse 46.) Abimelech 
set fire to the building, and thus destroyed those 
who had fled to it for protection. 

The meaning of Baal-Berith is " lord of cove- 
nants," similar to the " Zeus horkios" of the 
Greeks, or the Jove, who was invoked when any 
thing was to be ratified by an oath. Calmet thinks 
that Baal-Berith was the same as Dagon, the 
chief divinity of the Philistines. 



136 IDOL-GODS OF THE MOABITES, MIDIANITES, 

Moloch, also Malcom, (Zeph. i. 5,) or Milcom, 
(1 Kings, xi. 33, 2 Kings, xxiii. 14,) likewise 
called Adraiudielech and Anammslech, among 
the Samarians, (2 Kings, xvii. 31,) means a king, 
(Amos, v. 26, Acts, vii. 43,) and is therefore re- 
garded by some as the same as Baal, (Jer. xix. 5, 
and xxxii. 35,) and as representing the Sun, which 
was called king of the stars. The worship of 
Moloch is forbidden under terrible penalties. (Lev. 
xviii. 21, and xx. 2, 5.) 

Solomon worshipped Moloch among the idols 
w r hom he set up as his gods, (1 Kings, xi. 7.) 
Jehovah, through his prophet Jeremiah, complains 
that his covenant people had " built the high places 
of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hin- 
non, to cause their sons and their daughters to 
pass through the fire to Moloch, which I com- 
manded them not ; neither came it into my mind, 
that they should do this abomination, to cause 
Judah to sin." (Jer. xxxii. 35.) 

The passage in Jeremiah, xix. 5, to which allu- 
sion was made on a preceding page, appears still 
further to confirm the opinion that Moloch was 
the Baal of the Ammonites, and essentially the 




Moloch. 



SECHE3IITES, AMMONITES, AND PHILISTINES. 13? 

same as that idol. " They have built, also, the 
high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire 
for burnt-offerings unto Baal, which I commanded 
not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind." 
The planet Mars is said to have been the Mo- 
loch of the Egyptians. It is reckoned among the 
idols of the Canaanites : " They sacrificed their 
sons and their daughters unto devils, and shed 
innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and 
their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols 
of Canaan," &c. (Ps. cvi. 38.) Here, there is 
an evident allusion to Moloch. This idol was, 
however, more especially the god of the Ammon- 
ites, and is expressly called " the abomination of 
the children of Ammon." (1 Kings, xi. 7.) Ac- 
cording to the most authentic accounts, its image 
was a brazen statue, with the head of an ox, high 
horns, and extended hands, as though it were 
reaching out for something, which was offered or 
promised to it. In honour of this vile thing, its 
idolatrous worshippers caused their children to 
pass through the fire, ostensibly with a view to 
purify them. The priest, or else the father of 
the child, led it barefoot over a blazing pile : if 
m2 



138 IDOL-GODS OF THE MOABITES, MIDIANITB3, 

the poor victim survived, it was pronounced to be 
purified ; but if, as usually happened, the wretch- 
ed sufferer perished in the flames, prosperity and 
happiness were promised as the certain reward of 
the parents. Others burnt and sacrificed their 
-offspring by placing them in the fiery arms of 
the monster, made red-hot by means of a furnace 
at the base of the image. The piteous outcries of 
the unhappy children were the signal for drums 
to beat and trumpets to sound, lest the screams 
of their burning offspring might waken up the 
sleeping pity of their unnatural and deluded pa- 
rents. It is difficult to conceive how they could 
possibly be reconciled to this barbarous immola- 
tion of their children. The mind sickens at the 
thought of the deep degradation, to which these 
wretched idolaters must have sunk, before they 
could find motive sufficient to induce them to 
consent to the horrid sacrifice, in the assurance 
of the priests, that their remaining children would 
be blessed with long life and prosperity, and that 
their private loss would prove the public gain. 

It appears from Amos, v. 26, and Acts, vii. 
43, that Moloch was sometimes drawn on a cha- 



SECHEMITES, AMMONITES, AMD PHILISTINES. 139 




DAGON. 
riot through the streets, or carried about in a 
tabernacle, with great pomp. Solomon built a 
temple to this idol, and the Israelites worshipped 
it in the valley of Gehinnom, also called Tophet, 
a « drum," from the use made of this instrument 
at the festivals of Moloch. (Jer. vii. 21.) 
Dagon was the great idol of the Philistines, 



140 IDOL-GODS OF THE MOABITES, MIDIANITES, 

corresponding to the Neptune of other heathen 
nations. Dagon was worshipped as the deity 
who presided over fishing and navigation, and its 
images, according to the traditions of the Rab- 
bins, were made in the figure of a mermaid ; the 
upper part being like the human form, and the 
lower part like a fish. This may be accounted 
for, from the circumstance of the Philistines 
dwelling near the sea, and worshipping fishes as 
gods. There were splendid temples of this idol at 
Askelon, Gath, Gaza, and particularly at Ashdod. 
This house was burnt during the wars of the 
Maccabees, by the Jewish leader Jonathan. It 
was to Ashdod that the ark of the covenant was 
brought in triumph by the Philistines, after their 
victory over Israel, and placed before Dagon as 
a trophy, as though won through the help and in- 
fluence of this idol. But God vindicated his own 
glory, and Dagon fell prostrate and broken before 
the ark of Jehovah. " And when they of Ashdod 
arose early on the morrow,- behold, Dagon was 
fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of 
the Lord. And they took Dagon, and set him in 
his place again. And when they arose early on 



SECHEMITE3, AMMONITES, AND PHILISTINES. 141 

the morrow-morning, behold, Dagon was fallen 
upon his face to the ground before the ark of the 
Lord : and the head of Dagon, and both the palms 
of his hands, were cut off upon the threshold; 
only the stump of Dagon was left to Mm." (1 
Sam. 3-5.) It was to the temple of Dagon at 
Gaza that the Philistines repaired " to offer a 
great sacrifice, and to rejoice ; for they said, our 
god hath delivered Samson, our enemy, into our 
hand." (Judges, xvi. 23.) This building must 
have been very large, since Samson, after tearing 
away the pillars, which supported it, buried under 
its ruins more than three thousand men. The 
head of Saul was also placed in one of the tem- 
ples of this god. We read in the first book of 
Samuel, that after the great discomfiture sus- 
tained by the Israelites from the Philistines, when 
the conquerors " came to strip the slain, they 
found Saul and his three sons fallen in Mount 
Gilboa. And they cut off his head, and stripped 
off his armour, and sent in the land of the Philis- 
tines to publish it in the house of their idols, and - 
among the people. And they put his armour in 
the house of Ashtaroth." (1 Sam. xxxi. 10.) This 



142 IDOL-GODS OF THE MOABTTES, &C. 

latter quotation is a sufficient proof that Dago 
and Ashtaroth, which have sometimes been coi 
founded, were distinct deities. At Joppa, this id< 
was known as Derceto. It is not improbable, e 
pagan theology gives Neptune his Amphitrite 1 
share in his liquid empire, that the Dagon < 
Gaza and Ashdod corresponded to Neptune, an 
Derceto of Joppa to Amphitrite. In some othe 
places this false god was called Atargatis, and il 
temples Atargation. Maccabeus slew twenty-fiv 
thousand men at the temple of Atargatis. ( 
Mace. xii. 26.) 



IDOL-GODS OF THE SYRIANS. 143 



CHAPTER XVII. 

IDOL-GODS OP THE SYRIANS. 

The Syrians had many gods, of which frequent 
mention is incidently made in Scripture. We 
read of the ungodly king Ahaz, that, " in the 
time of his distress, he sacrificed to the gods of 
Damascus, which smote him ; and he said, be- 
cause the gods of the kings of Syria help them, 
therefore, will I sacrifice to them, that they may 
help me." (2 Chron. xxviii. 22, 23.) The Sun 
was the principal object of their worship, and 
was adored at Hemath, under the name of Asima, 
or " the fire of heaven ;" at Ava, it was called 
Nibchaz, or " the swift god," and Tartak, " the 
chariot of the Sun." " The Avites made Nibhaz 
and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their child- 
ren in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, 
the gods of.Sepharvaim." (2 Kings, xvii. 31.) 
At Damascus, the god Rimmon, or the Sun, had a 



144 IDOL-GODS OF THE SYRIANS. 

famous temple. The signification of Rimmon is y 
" that which comes from above." (2 Kings, v. 
18.) The passage reads thus : " In this thing the 
Lord pardon thy servant, that when my master 
goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, 
and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in 
the house of Rimmon ; when I bow down myself 
in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy 
servant in this thing. And Elisha said unto him, 
go in peace." This Scripture has been too often 
distorted and wrested from its true meaning, for 
us to pass it over without a word of explanation. 
Some have argued from this passage that a man 
may be placed under such peculiar circumstances 
that he may have license to commit sin. This is 
a fearful delusion. Naaman did not ask leave to 
worship Rimmon. On the contrary, he had ex- 
pressly declared, that he would " henceforth offer 
neither burnt-offering nor sacrifice unto other 
gods, but unto the Lord." If he had made any 
such request, the prophet of the Lord never 
would have said, "Go, in peace;" for, "there 
is no peace to the wicked" idolater, " saith my 
God." Elisha was not a dauber with untem- 



IDOL-GODS OF THE SYRIANS. 145 

pered mortar; and he had too much of the spirit 
of his station, ever to encourage or connive at 
idolatry. All that Naaman asked was this ; — 
As a chief officer of the king of Syria, it was his 
duty to support his royal master, who, according 
to Eastern custom, was in the habit of leaning 
upon his favourites, whenever he took part in 
any public ceremony. Naaman was the king's 
servant : as such, his master had a right, ac- 
cording to the usages of that country, to lean 
upon him. Naaman asked for permission to 
" abide in his calling with God." It was granted : 
" Go, in peace." Besides, it will be remembered, 
we live in a day of greater light and knowledge 
than he ; and even if it be admitted, that Naaman 
showed more anxiety to preserve his temporal 
station and dignity than might be tolerated in a 
sincere disciple of the Lord Jesus, in our day, 
since Christ by his death " has purified us to 
himself a peculiar people," the Apostle's de- 
claration meets this objection — " The time of 
former ignorance God winked at, but now com- 
mandeth all men every where to repent." " A 
w 



145 IDOL-GODS OF THE SYRIANS. 

bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking 
flax shall he not quench." 

Thamus, or Tammutz, according to some, is 
the Syrian god Adonis, whom the poets feigned 
to have been the paramour of Venus. She be- 
wailed his untimely end, (he having been killed, 
whilst hunting, by a wild boar,) and changed him 
into a beautiful flower, the anemone. In order to 
testify their grief for his death, people of dissolute 
habits of both sexes, made great lamentations at 
the festivals of Venus, accompanied by a band, who 
performed a funeral dirge in honour of Thamus. On 
the day succeeding this exhibition, they manifest- 
ed the most extravagant demonstrations of joy, as 
though they were celebrating his restoration to life. 
Others have supposed that the Egyptian god Osi- 
ris, the spouse of Isis, was the same as Thamus; 
and the story of Osiris having been slain by Ty- 
phon, and lamented by Isis and the Egyptians, 
would appear to sustain this theory. The dif- 
ference in the name admits of a ready explana- 
tion. Osiris was also called Ammutz by the 
Egyptians, and from this Thamutz may readily 
be derived. The abominable and obscene cere- 



IDOL-GODS OF THE SY2IAN3. 147 

monies which were practised at the festivals of 
both Osiris and Thamutz, show that these deities 
were closely allied, if not one and the same. The 
Israelites having witnessed such scenes among 
the Egyptians, introduced them into the temple 
and worship of the Lord. King Josiah purified 
Israel of this abomination. " He brake down 
the houses of the Sodomites, that were by the 
house of the Lord, where the women wove hang- 
ings for the grove." (2 Kings, xxiii. 7.) 

Gad and Mkni were two Syrian deities, 
which, according to Luther, corresponded to the 
idols Mars and Mercury, worshipped by the Greeks 
and Romans. (Is. lxv. 11.) " But ye are they 
that forsake the Lord, that forget my holy moun- 
tain, that prepare a table for Gad, and that fur- 
nish a drink-offering to Meni." In our version, 
Gad is translated " that troop," and Meni, " that 
number." Others derive the word from an old 
Arabic root, and regard Gad as the same with 
Apollo, i. e. the Sun, which we have already 
shown to have been the principal god of many 
heathen nations. 

Meni represents the Moon, to which meat and 



148 IDOL-GODS OF THE SYRIANS. 

drink-offerings were brought, to secure fair 
weather. After the Lord had told Jeremiah that 
he would not hear him in behalf of Israel, and that 
the prophet should, therefore, " not pray, nor lift 
up cry, nor make intercession" to him, he gives 
the reason of this interdict. " Seest thou not 
what they do in the cities of Judah, and in the 
streets of Jerusalem 1 The children gather wood, 
and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women 
knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of 
heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto other 
gods, that they may provoke me to anger." (Jer. 
vii. 17, 18.) In a subsequent chapter we have 
the answer which the wicked men, whom Jere- 
miah had reproved on account of their idolatry, 
returned to him ; which has a direct reference to 
the custom of making offerings to the moon. 
" As for the word which thou hast spoken unto 
us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken 
unto thee : but we will certainly do whatsoever 
thing goeth out of our mouth, to burn incense to 
the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offer- 
ings unto her, as we have done, we, and our 
fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities 



IDOL-SODS OF THE SYRIANS. 149 

of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem : for 
then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, 
and saw no evil. But since we left off to burn 
incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out 
drink-offerings unto her, we have wanted all 
things, and have been consumed by the sword 
and by the famine. And when we burnt incense 
to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink- 
offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to wor- 
ship her, without our ?nen?" (or, husbands.) The 
ancient German words, "gade" and "maen," the 
former of which means God, and the latter, moon, 
seem to corroborate the explanation given above 
of the names Gad and Menu 



w2 



150 THE ID0L-G0D3 OF GREECE AND ROME. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE IDOL-GODS OF GREECE AND R031E. 

Among all the superstitious nations of antiqui- 
ty, Greece claims an unenviable precedence, as 
the home and the workshop of idolatry. No 
people under the sun had more fables concerning 
the origin and genealogy of the gods, current 
among them than they. Their poets, particularly 
Homer and Hesiod, reduced the vain and silly 
traditions of their mythology to a kind of system, 
and ascribed to the different deities their peculiar 
names, offices, arts, rank, and exploits ; among 
which latter, some very disreputable actions were 
included. The number of gods in Greece was 
about three thousand ; these were arranged under 
the two principal divisions .of primary and se- 
condary divinities ; the latter of which were wor- 
shipped as particularly superintending human 
affairs, and as the ministers, or ambassadors, of 



THE IDOL-GODS OF GREECE AND ROME. 151 

the superior deities. It is barely possible to dis- 
cern through this dark and confused theory, the 
outlines of the original from which it was bor- 
rowed ; but there cannot be much doubt, that this 
fundamental point in their theology, was derived 
from a vague and distorted notion of the angels. 
This immense host of false gods was subdivided 
into celestial, terrestrial, marine, and infernal 
deities. We will briefly mention the names and 
offices of the most distinguished. 

The chief of the celestial gods were — 
1. Jupiter, or Jove, called Zeus by the 
Greeks, and worshipped as the Great Supreme, 
the king of gods and men. He was called the 
son of Saturn and Cybele, or Rhea, and was 
fabled to have been saved from the jaws of his 
father by a stratagem of Rhea, who substituted a 
stone for the infant Jupiter ; Saturn having swal- 
lowed it, she concealed her son on Mount Ida in 
Crete. The name, Jove, is probably derived from 
the Hebrew Jehovah. 

The Grecians represented Jupiter by a statue 
with three eyes ; intimating that this deity ob- 
served all things in heaven, earth, and hell ; or 



152 THE IDOL-GODS OF GREECE AND ROME. 

that he was acquainted with the present, past, 
and future. The Romans placed his image on a 
throne of ivory, with three thunderbolts in his 
right hand, a sceptre in his left, and an eagle by 
his side. The statue of Jupiter, sculptured by 
Phidias, was considered one of the seven wonders 
of the world. The most shameful debaucheries 
were ascribed to this deity by the ancient poets 
and historians. 

When Paul and Barnabas were preaching the 
gospel at Lystra, in Lycaonia, they met with a 
poor cripple, who had never walked : u The same 
heard Paul speak; who steadfastly beholding him, 
and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, 
said with a loud voice, stand upright on thy feet. 
And he leaped and walked. And when the peo- 
ple saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their 
voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, the 
gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. 
And they called Barnabas, Jupiter ; and Paul, 
Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker." 
(Acts, xiv. 9-12.) The priest of Jupiter and the 
people made preparations to sacrifice to the Apos- 
tles, who with difficulty dissuaded their idolatrous 



THE IDOL-GODS OF GEEECE AND ROME. 153 

admirers from putting their purpose into execu- 
tion. Jupiter had many surnames — such, for ex- 
ample, as Amnion, Belus, Olympius, Xenius, i. e. 
" the guardian of strangers." There is an allusion 
to this deity in the Apocrypha. (2 Mace. vi. 2.) 
The wife of Jupiter and queen of the gods, was 
called Juno. 

2. Apollo, or the Sun, the offspring of Jove 
and Latona. There is a passage in Revelation, 
to which we have already adverted, in which Apol- 
lyon is spoken of as " the angel of the bottomless 
pit." (Rev. ix. 11.) The meaning of Apollo is, 
" The Destroyer :" this god was so named from 
the exploits which lie was said to have per- 
formed, such as slaying the Pythian giant or ser- 
pent, &c. Cicero mentions four gods of this name. 
(Tide page 65.) 

3. Diaxa, the Moon, daughter of Jove and 
twin-sister of Apollo, was worshipped as presiding 
over births and fruitful ness. She was worshipped 
as the goddess of the chase, fxshing, and journeys, 
particularly such as are performed during the 
night season. Ephesus was the place in which 
she was adored with the greatest honours, and 



154 THE IDOL-GODS OF GREECE AND ROME. 

her temple was, in fact, the most renowned in all 
Asia. The figure in the plate represents the sta- 
tue of the Ephesian Diana. The breasts and heads 
of beasts, with which she is covered, are emble- 
matical of the fruitfulness which her influence was 
supposed to promote. Diana was known under 
three names. As a celestial deity she was called 
Phoebe; as a terrestial goddess, Diana; whilst He- 
cate was the appellation under which she was 
worshipped as one of the deities presiding over the 
infernal regions. The temple of Diana, at Ephe- 
sus, was considered one of the wonders of the 
world. All the provinces of Asia Minor contri- 
buted for upwards of 200 years towards its erec- 
tion. There were in it 420 pillars, erected by as 
many kings. This magnificent building was de- 
stroyed by fire in the 106 Olymp., on the very 
day that Alexander the Great was born. " Diana 
of the Ephesians" is mentioned in the book of 
Acts, in an interesting connexion. 

The preaching of Paul had been attended with 
the demonstration of the Holy Spirit and with 
power, and so mightily did the Word of God grow 
and prevail, that a certain Demetrius, n silver- 



THE IDOL-GODS OF GREECE AXD ROME. 155 

smith, who had made a living by manufacturing 
silver shrines for Diana, excited first his fellow- 
craftsmen, and then the citizens of Ephesus, against 
the ministers of Jesus Christ ; being apprehensive, 
from the number of conversions, that he would 
soon be left without employment; and not only so, 
but also, " that the temple of the great goddess Di- 
ana should be despised, and her magnificence 
should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world 
worshipped." A great excitement was raised, 
and the rabble assembled in the streets, crying out, 
u great is Diana of the Ephesians !" The whole 
city was full of confusion, and the lives of the dis- 
ciples were in great jeopardy, but the Lord pre- 
served them in a remarkable manner. (Acts, xix.) 
The Persians worshipped Diana under the name 
of Zaretis, and her temple in the City of Elimais 
was called Zara, which Antiochus Epiphanes at- 
tempted to plunder, but was defeated. (1 Mace, 
vi. 1-4.) 

4. Mars, the son of Jove and Juno, was the 
god of war, and according to Luther, is the same 
with Gad. (Is. Lxv. 11.) 

5. Mercury, the son of Jove and Maia, was 



156 THE IDOL-GODS OF GREECE AND ROME. 




MERCURY. 

the god of eloquence. An allusion is made to this 
in Acts xiv. 12, where it is said, the Lystrians 
called Paul, Mercury, because he was " the chief 
speaker." This god was worshipped as presiding 
also over merchants, thieves, &c, and was called 
the iL i 'T the gods. Mercury, who, in ad- 

dition to the duties assigned him as the servant of 



THE ID0L-G0D5 OF GREECE AND E031E. 157 

the gods, was fabled to have been the conductor 
of departed souls to the place of reward and pun- 
ishment, was usually represented as a young man, 
with wings attached to his ears and feet, holding 
in his hand a caducous or staff, around which ser- 
pents are entwined. Luther regards Meni, (Is. 
lxv. 11,) as being the same idol. 

6. Vexes, the goddess of love and voluptuous 
debauchery, was worshipped principally at Paphos 
in Cyprus, and was known under the various sur- 
names of Ashtaroth, Astarte, Mylitta, Urania, &c. 

7. Saturn, the son of heaven and earth, has 
been spoken of in connexion with Xoah, in the 
chapter on the "Mythology of the Heathen.'' 

II. The principal terrestrial gods were — 

1. iEoLus, the god of winds. 

2. Ceres, the goddess of agriculture. 
.3. Jaxes, who presided over treaties. 

4. Pales, the god of herds and pastures. 

5. Pax, a god of shepherds or herdsmen, and 
hunters. This deity was fabled to have dwelt in 
mountains and in woods. He was represented as 
a man with two horns, having the beard, legs, and 
tail of a goat, and a red face, alluding probably 



158 THE IDOL-GODS OF GREECE AND R03IE. 

to his incessant playing on the flute, which instru- 
ment, in addition to a shepherd's crook, completed 
the accoutrements of this ridiculous abomination. 

6. Priapus, who presided over gardens, was 
probably the same as Baal-Peor of the Moabites. 

7. Bacchus, the god of wine, and son of Jupiter 
and Semele, was worshipped with ceremonies call- 
ed Bacchanalia, which consisted in inordinate eat- 
ing, drinking, and abominable licentiousness. We 
read in the book of the Maccabees, among the per- 
secutions which the Jews were compelled to under- 
go, that, " in the day of the king's birth, they were 
brought, every month, by bitter constraint, to eat of 
the sacrifices : and when the feast of Bacchus was 
kept, the Jews were compelled to go in procession 
to Bacchus, carrying ivy." More than a distant 
allusion seems to be made to the worship of Bac- 
chus, by the prophet Hosea, when he says, (iv. 
11,) "whoredom and wine, and new wine, take 
away the heart." Cicero mentions six deities of 
this name. 

8. Vulcan, the son of Jove and Juno, was 
worshipped as the god of fire, and as presiding 
over blacksmiths, &c. 



THE IDOL-GODS OF GREECE A!XD ROME. 159 

III. The principal marine deities were Neptune 
and Amphitrite. 

IV. The chief of the infernal gods was Pluto, 
worshipped by the Phoenicians as Beelzebub, who 
is called in Scripture the " prince of devils." 
(Matt. xii. 24, Mark hi. 22, Luke xi. 15.) As the 
Greeks were anxious to adore all the gods, and 
were fearful of offending any deity, by omitting 
his name or worship, they erected altars to the 
" unknown god." It was in reference to this that 
Paul in his sermon on Mars-hill, said to the 
Greeks : " Whom, therefore, ye ignorantly wor- 
ship, him declare I unto you." (Acts xvii. 23.) 

The various sects of philosophers among the 
Greeks, promoted idolatry to the utmost extent of 
their influence, and viewed any innovations with 
a jealous eye ; hence the enmity which the Epicu- 
reans and Stoics manifested against Paul, of whom 
some said : " What will this babbler say ?" 
Others : "He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange 
gods : because he preached unto them Jesus and 
the resurrection." (Acts, xvii. 18.) The most 
noted of these sects were the Platonics, Peripate- 
tics, Stoics, Epicureans, and Pythagoreans. 



160 IDOLATRY CF THE PEOPLE OF GOD. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

IDOLATRY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD. 

We have observed, that many Jewish rites were 
borrowed by the heathen and engrafted upon their 
false religions; but it is equally true on the other 
hand, that the Israelites learned many idolatrous 
customs from distant as well as neighbouring 
nations. In Chaldcea, even the patriarchs were 
somewhat infected with this plague. To this fact 
Joshua adverts, when in the commencement of his 
well-known address to the children of Israel, he 
says : " Your fathers dwelt on the other side of 
the flood in old time, even Zerah, the father of 
Abraham and the father of Nahor: and ihey served 
other gods." (Josh. xxiv. 2.) 

Eusebius informs us, that Serug, the son of Re- 
gu, first introduced it into their families. (Gen. 
xi. 20.) At nil events, it is certain, that Jehovah 
commanded Abraham to leave his country and 



IDOLATRY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD. 151 

friends, because they had been contaminated with 
idolatry. (Compare Gen. xii. 1, and Josh. xxiv. 
2.) From this period until the days of Jacob, ido- 
latry was unknown in the family of the patriarchs. 
But when Rachel had brought her father's Tera- 
phim, or household gods out of Syria, (Gen. xxxi. 
19, 30-34.) and some of her husband's family had 
defiled themselves with the idols of the Sichemites, 
among whom they had dwelt, (Judges, ix. 46,) 
Jacob insisted upon the removal of this stumbling- 
block, and buried all the images under an oak at 
Sechem. (Gen. xxxv. 1-4.) 

The slavery of the Israelites ought to have laid 
them under additional obligations to obey and 
worship the true God, as this was, no doubt, one 
object of their affliction. During the time of their 
bondage, they went after the strange gods of 
Egypt, as we learn from the admonition of Jo- 
shua. " Now, therefore, fear the Lord, and serve 
him in sincerity and truth ; and put away the gods 
which your fathers served on the other side of the 
flood, and in Egypt, and serve ye the Lord." 
This is still farther confirmed by the prophet Eze- 
kiel, when he says of the children of Israel: 
o2 



162 IDOLATRY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD. 

" They committed whoredoms in Egypt." (Ezek. 
xxiii. 3.) The context showing that idolatry was 
the sin designated hy this term. The nineteenth 
and twenty -first verses of the same chapter con- 
tain a repetition of the charge. With a knowledge 
of this fact, it is more easy to account for the ido- 
latry of the Israelites, so shortly after their deli- 
verance from the house of bondage. They re- 
lapsed into their old idolatrous habits, so soon as 
they lost sight of Moses. (Exod. xxxii. 1-6.) Je- 
hovah, on various occasions, most solemnly de- 
nounced, in their hearing, all idolatry, worshipping 
of graven images, and every kind of heathenish 
superstition. The second commandment. of the 
Decalogue was framed expressly as a barrier 
against all such transgressions. And, in addition 
to this, we find the most pointed prohibitions in the 
Old Testament writings, e. g. " Take ye there- 
fore good heed unto yourselves, for ye saw no 
manner of similitude on the .day that the Lord 
spake unto you in Ilorcu, out of the midst of the 
fire, lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a 
graven image, the similitude of any figure, the 
likeness of male or female, the likeness of any 



IDOLATRY OF THE PEOrLE OF GOD. 163 

beast that is on the earth, the likeness of any 
winged fowl that flieth in the air, the likeness of 
any thing that creepeth on the ground, the like- 
ness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the 
earth ; and lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, 
and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and 
the stars, even ail the host of heaven, shouldst be 
driven to worship them, and serve them which the 
Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under 
the whole heaven. 5 ' (Deut. iv. 15-20.) Notwith- 
standing this and similar warnings, in their wander- 
ings through the wilderness, they appear actually to 
have carried about with them the images of Moloch 
and other idols, (Amos, v. 25, 26, Acts,vii. 41, 43,) 
and at their entrance into the land of Canaan, we 
find them joining themselves to Baal-Peor, the god 
of the Moabites. (Xumb. xxv. 42, 43). During the 
lifetime of Joshua, Israel preserved the worship of 
Jehovah pure, but after his death, " arose another 
generation which knew not the Lord ;" forgetting 
the solemn charge, which had been given them, 
to drive out every idolater from the promised land, 
they suffered a few tribes to remain among them, 
and the consequence was, the service of the Lord 



164 IDOLATRY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD. 

was corrupted by the abominations tolerated in 
their midst, (Jud. ii. 7-17, Judg. hi. 1-7), and 
by intermarriages between the Israelites and their 
idolatrous neighbours. " They served Baalim" 
offered sacrifices to the gods of Canaan, (Ps. 
clxvi. 38,) worshipped Baal and Ashtaroth, (or, 
the groves,) (Judges, ii. 13, iii. 7), and burnt in- 
cense to the gods of the Syrians, Sidonians, Mo- 
abites, Ammonites, (Ps. cvi. 34-39,) and Philis- 
tines, (Judges, x. 6.) It is true, there were short 
intervals during this long season of apostacy, in 
which Israel seemed to relent, whenever men full 
of faith and the Holy Ghost were raised up, but 
there seemed to be an almost irresistible propensity 
to settle down on the lees of idolatry, so soon as 
God called his zealous servants to their rest. Dur- 
ing the lifetime of Gideon, for example, the people 
seemed to be engaged in the work of the Lord, 
and to be doing whatsoever their hand found to do, 
with their might, but " as soon as Gideon was 
dead, the children of Israel turned again, and went 
a whoring after Baalim, and made Baal-Berith 
their god. And the children of Israel remem- 
bered not the Lord their God, who had delivered 



IDOLATRY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD. 165 

them out of the hands of all their enemies on every 
side." (Judges, viii. 33, 34.) In honour of these 
idols they built altars, and planted groves, in 
which they instituted " high places," and prac- 
tised ail manner of obscene wickedness under the 
cover of tents erected for the purpose. (2 Kings, 
xxiii. 7.) When God called Gideon to deliver 
Israel from the yoke of the Midianites, the first 
blow that this servant of the Lord struck, was at 
the altar of Baal, and the grove contiguous to it. 
(Judges, vi. 25-32.) 

In order to guard more effectually against this 
idolatry, to which the Israelites were so prone, 
the Lord commanded expressly, " Thou shalt not 
plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the 
altar of the Lord thy God, which thou shalt 
make thee." (Deut. xvi. 21.) And again: "Ye 
shall utterly destroy all the places wherein the 
nations which ye shall possess, served their gods, 
upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and 
under every green tree. And ye shall overthrow 
their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their 
groves with fire ; and ye shall hew down the 
graven images of their gods, and destroy the 



166 IDOLATRY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD. 

names of them out of that place." (Deut. xii. 2, 3.) 
The practice of choosing and worshipping house- 
hold gods was also introduced into Israel, as we 
see in the case of Micah and the tribe of Dan. 
(Judges, xvii. and xvih\) Through the influence of 
Samuel, Saul, and David, idolatry was again abo- 
lished in Israel, (1 Sam. vii. 3, 4), and the land 
seemed to breathe freely, as though a heavy load 
had been removed from its bosom. The people 
of God prevailed against their enemies, and pros- 
pered at home as well as abroad ; but upon the 
death of the man after God's own heart, this mo- 
ral plague again broke out. It was introduced by 
Solomon's wives, who seduced him from the wor- 
ship of the true God, and taught him to burn in- 
cense, offer sacrifice, and build temples to the idols 
of their different countries. It appeared as though 
Satan had at length succeeded in lifting up the 
flood-gates and removing the barriers, which had 
hitherto, in a great measure, restrained the deso- 
lating torrent that now swept every thing before 
it. " Then Solomon built a high place for Che- 
mosh, or Chamos, the abomination of Moab, in 
the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Moloch, 



IDOLATRY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD. 167 

the abomination of the children of Ammon. And 
likewise did he for all his strange wives, which 
burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods." (1 
Kings, xi. 7, 8.) After the division of the king- 
dom, Jeroboam instituted the worship of the 
golden calves and satyrs, to which allusion has 
several times been made, (1 Kings, xii. 28-33) ; 
2 Chron. xi. 15). Ahab established the altars 
of Baal, (1 Kings, xvi. 31-33), and from this time 
forward, idolatry was practised by every king of 
Israel, and their example w r as followed by the 
people. The last king, Hoshea, w r as not quite so 
wicked as his predecessors. " He did that which 
was evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as the 
kings of Israel that were before him." (2 Kings, 
xvii. 2.) In proof of this, it may be mentioned, 
that after the two golden calves had been carried 
away by the Assyrian kings, (Hos. x. 6), he per- 
mitted his subjects to return to Jerusalem, to wor- 
ship the true God, and did not hinder them, when 
after their return from celebrating the passover 
with Hezekiah at Jerusalem, they broke in pieces 
the images, cut down the groves, removed the 
high places, and destroyed every vestige of ido- 



168 IDOLATRY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD. 

latry throughout the land of Samaria. (2 Chron. 
xxx. 10-18.) For further details of the idolatry 
of the kingdom of Israel, we refer the reader to 
the books of the prophets Hosea and Amos, and 
also to the sixteenth and twenty-third chapters of 
Ezekiel. 

In Judah, the state of religion was not much bet- 
ter than in Israel ; for although they had the tem- 
ple and the ordinances of the true worship among 
them, the Jews paid divine honours to a countless 
multitude of false gods. This the prophet Jere- 
miah laments : " Where are thy gods that thou 
hast made thee 1 Let them arise, if they can save 
thee in the time of thy trouble ; for according to 
the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah." 
(Jer. ii. 28.) And again: " According to the num- 
ber of thy cities were thy gods, and according to 
the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye 
set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to 
burn incense unto Baal." (Jer. xi. 13.) They 
became more and more addicted to idolatry, which 
was maintained and promoted by their wicked 
kings. It was they who consecrated horses to the 
sun, (2 Kings, xxiii. 11, 12), and built altars to 



IDOLATKY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD. 169 

the abominations of the heathen. High places, 
pillars, groves, &c 3 were set up on every spot 
which appeared convenient for their idolatrous 
worship. " Judah did evil in the sight of the 
Lord, and they provoked him to jealousy with 
their sins which they had committed, above all 
that their fathers had done. For they also built 
them high places, and images, and groves, on 
every high hill, and under every green tree. And 
there were also Sodomites in the land; and they 
did according to all the abominations of the na- 
tions which the Lord cast out before the children 
of Israel. 5 ' (1 Kings, xiv. 22-24.) Isaiah upbraids 
them thus : " Are ye not children of transgression 
— a seed of falsehood; inflaming yourselves with 
idols, under every green tree, slaying the chil- 
dren in the valleys, under the clifts of the rocks ?" 
(Isaiah, lxvii. 4.) Ezekiel threatens in the name 
of the Lord. " Then shall ye know that I am the 
Lord, when their slain men shall be among their 
idols, round about their altars, upon every high 
hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under 
every green tree, and under every thick oak, the 
place where they did offer sweet savour to all 
p 



170 IDOLATRY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD. 

their idols." (Ezek. vi. 13.) Queen Maecha 
planted a grove for Miplezeth ; Ahaziah and his 
mother, Athahliah, introduced the worship of Baal 
into Jerusalem. " He also walked in the ways of 
the house of Ahab, for his mother was his coun- 
sellor to do wickedly. Wherefore he did evil in 
the sight of the Lord, like the house of Ahab ; for 
they were his counsellors, after the death of his 
father, to his destruction." (2 Chron. xxii. 3, 4 ; 
2 Chron. xxiii. 17 ; Jer. xix. 5.) Manasseh went 
so far as to set up the image of Baal in the temple 
of the Lord ; " He set a graven image of the 
grove that he had made in the house, of which the 
Lord said to David, and to Solomon, his son, in 
this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen 
out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name 
forever." (2 Kings, xxi. 7 ; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 3.) 
Ezekiel and Jeremiah both complain of this insult 
offered to the Lord Jehovah. (Ezek. viii. 3 ; Jer. 
vii. 30.) 

Images of reptiles and beasts, such as were 
commonly deposited in the idol-temples of the 
Egyptians, were also set up in the LoroVs house* 
or their pictures drawn on its walls. M He brought 



IDOLATRY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD. 171 

me to the door of the court ; and when I looked, 
behold a hole in the wall. Then he said unto me, 
son of man, dig now in the wall ; and when I had 
digged in the wall, behold a door. And he said 
unto me, go in, and behold the wicked abomina- 
tions that they do here. So I went in and saw ; 
and behold every form of creeping things, and 
abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house 
of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about." 
(Ezek. viii. 7-10.) 

They worshipped brazen serpents. It is re- 
lated of Hezekiah, (2 Kings, xviii. 4,) that " he 
removed the high places, &c, and brake in pieces 
the brazen serpent that Moses had made : for unto 
those days did the children of Israel burn incense 
to it." They paid divine honours to the sun. 
When the Lord was showing Ezekiel the abomi- 
nations committed in his house, after pointing out 
different causes of offence, he says : " Turn thee 
yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations 
than these. And he brought me into the inner 
court of the Lord's house ; and behold, at the door 
of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and 
the altar, were about five and twenty men, with 



172 IDOLATRY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD. 

their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and 
their faces toward the east ; and they worshipped 
the si.m toward the east." (Ezek. viii. 10.) 

They consecrated to the sun, chariots and 
horses, which were kept in the temple. Josiah 
took away the horses, which the kings of Judah 
had given to the sun, at the entering in of the 
house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan- 
melech, the chamberlain, which was in the sub- 
urbs, and burnt the chariots of the sun with fire." 
(2 Kings, xxiii. 11.) 

They sacrificed to the moon as queen of hea- 
ven, (Jer. vii. 18,) and erected altars to the stars, 
and worshipped them as the host of heaven. (2 
Kings, xxi. 3-5.) 

False prophets and diviners were encouraged, 
(2 Chron. xxxiii. 6,) prostitution of the most hor- 
rid kind was maintained, (1 Kings, xiv. 24, 2 
Kings, xxiii. 7,) and the gods of all the heathen 
nations with whom the Israelites became ac- 
quainted, were invoked. They worshipped the 
idols of Syria, (2 Chron. xxviii. 23-25,) Assyria, 
Egypt, and Chaldaea, (Ezek. xvi. 26-29, xxiii. 
11-27, and viii. 14.) Moloch had his altars in 



IDOLATRY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD. 173 

the vale of Tophet and Ben-Hinnom, (2 Kings, 
xxiii. 10; Jer. vii. 31, xxxii. 35; 1 Chron. xxviii. 
3,) and, in short, both Israel and Judah served 
Satan with their whole heart, and soul, and mind, 
and strength. 

After the Babylonian captivity, synagogues 
were established among the Jews in every city; 
to these they repaired on the Sabbath and also 
during the week, for worship, and to hear Moses 
and the prophets read and expounded. These 
institutions preserved them in the knowledge of 
Jehovah and his law, and restrained them from 
adopting the idolatrous customs and superstitions 
of the neighbouring nations. When the Syrian 
king, Antiochus the Great, attempted to subvert 
the worship of the living God, and to force upon 
the Jews the vile ceremonies of Grecian idolatry, 
the Maccabees resisted the encroachments of his 
tyranny, and expended treasure and blood in the 
defence of their rights, which they, at length, 
with God's help, successfully vindicated. 

From this time forward, the Jews were vigi- 
lant in detecting and avoiding the least approach 
to idolatry. Images and pictures were their ab- 
p2 



174 IDOLATRY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD. 

horrence — no sculptors were tolerated among 
them — not a statue was to be seen in their syna- 
gogues, and might not even so much as be named 
in connexion with the temple. In short, every 
thing; of the kind was banished from Jerusalem. 
So jealous were they of the glory of God, that 
they rebelled against their rulers whenever the 
attempt was made to set up images or statues 
amongst them, and preferred death to their tolera- 
tion. Frequent petitions were addressed to the 
Roman government to forbid the passage of 
troops through their country, because the Roman 
legions were always furnished with standards, 
which consisted principally of images. Hence 
it is easy to understand why the Roman army, 
at the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, is 
termed "the abomination of desolation." — 
"When ye therefore shall see the abomination of 
desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand 
in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him under- 
stand,) then let them which be in Jerusalem, flee 
into the mountains," &c. (Matt. xxiv. 15, 16.) 
That this "abomination of desolation" refers to 
Roman armies is plain, by a reference to the 



IDOLATRY OF THE TEOPLE OP GOD. 175 

parallel passage in Luke, xxi. 20, where the Sa- 
viour says, "And when ye shall see Jerusalem 
compassed with armies, then know that the deso- 
lation thereof is nigh." 

In the New Testament, converts to Christianity 
from among the heathen are warned to guard 
against relapsing into their former idolatrous 
habits. When the dissension arose among the 
brethren about circumcising the Gentile con- 
verts, after Peter and Paul and Barnabas had 
each given his opinion, the Apostle James, who 
evidently was the president of the convention, 
closes his counsel thus — " Wherefore my sen- 
tence, (or opinion,) is, that we trouble not them, 
which from among the Gentiles are turned to God : 
but that we write to them, that they abstain from 
pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and 
from things strangled, and from blood." (Acts, 
xv. 20.) The Apostle John concludes his First 
General Epistle with this affectionate counsel : 
" Little children, keep yourselves from idols." 

In the writings of the Apostles, there are special 
and repeated cautions against the use of all things 
offered to idols. (1 Cor. viii. 10-13; x. 19-32.) 



176 IDOLATRY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD. 

It was a common custom among the heathen, 
for the priest to sprinkle the thing sacrificed to 
idols with wine, and before the libation was 
poured out, to hand the cup around to the by- 
standers for them to taste. After the sacrifice 
had been performed with the usual ceremonies, 
they who had brought the offering usually made 
a great feast in the temple, when that which re- 
mained of the sacrifice was eaten by the com- 
pany, who sang the praises of their gods, and 
danced and leaped about the altar, as the priests 
of Baal did, when Elijah urged them in mockery 
to be more earnest in their prayers. To these 
festivals, Christians who had heathen relatives 
and friends, were often invited, and were pressed 
to drink of their cup, and to partake of the things 
offered to idols. But, because this was a great 
scandal, and a stumbling block, which was cal- 
culated particularly to offend such who were 
weak in the faith, the great Apostle of the Gen- 
tiles warns the disciples against all participation 
in such festivals — terming them "the table of de- 
vils," and "the cup of devils." 



CONCLUSION. 177 



CHAPTER XX. 



CONCLUSION. 



The subject which has been investigated in the 
preceding pages, is one fraught with melancholy 
reflections. It is humiliating even to fallen human 
nature, to be compelled to acknowledge that the 
practice of bowing to stocks and stones should 
ever have prevailed to a great extent in any one 
country. What must it be then, when it is re- 
membered, that without excepting even the chosen 
people of God, every nation, upon whom the 
light of heaven has shone, has, at one period or 
other of its history, been addicted to idolatry? 
Let it never be forgotten, that the origin of all 
this defection from reason and holiness, is to be 
traced to that one transgression in Eden, which 
" brought death into the world, and all our wo." 

So long, indeed, as we continue in alienation 
from God, we are worshipping idols, for every 



178 CONCLUSION. 

thing is an idol that usurps that place in our 
affections which belongs to God, and worship is 
nothing but supreme love. 

It is now considered altogether too revolting to 
every dictate of reason, to adore the work of our 
own hands by outward acts of worship ; because 
Bible light and knowledge have chased away from 
our land the midnight gloom in which six hun- 
dred millions of our benighted fellow men, are 
still groping their downward way, dishonouring 
God by deeds of darkness, and stumbling over 
their idol-altars into hell. " Thanks be to God 
for his unspeakable gift !" Thanks for every 
drop of blood shed upon the cross, and for the 
knowledge of the Saviour's death and resurrec- 
tion! Let us not forget that necessity is laid upon 
us to extend this saving knowledge to those who 
have never heard of the Man of Calvary ; but let 
each one, according to the measure of the grace 
of Christ given to him, exert his influence that 
the Saviour's last command, " Go ye into all the 
world, and preach the gospel to every creature," 
may come into speedy accomplishment. If there 
were but one Praetorian colwrt in the sacra- 



CONCLUSION. 179 

mental host of God, composed of spirits such as 
Nitsbman and Dober of the Moravian Church, 
who first planted the ensign of dying love on the 
West India Islands, the fulness of the Gentiles 
would, ere long, come pouring and pressing into 
the kingdom of heaven, and the Word of God, 
which is a lamp to our feet, would soon gleam 
through the shades of death as a beacon-light to 
the millions who still groan in spiritual bondage, 
and stumble and fall on the dark mountains of 
sin. But before God's sons can be brought from 
far, and his daughters from the ends of the earth, 
the Church, the Lamb's bride, purchased with 
his own precious blood, must array herself in 
the beauty of holiness, gird herself with Im- 
manuel's strength, and put away her idols ! 

The IDOLATRY OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IS UOW 

the great stumbling-block in the highway of our 
God. Oh ! that the day would dawn when Covet- 
ousness, the Great Dagon of worldly Christians, 
shall fall before the Ark of God, never to rise 
again ! 

It is true, we rejoice in the light of revelation, 
and in all the social, political, and religious privi- 



180 CONCLUSION. 

leges, which emanate from the Bible, yet how 
many, even in the noon of this gospel-day, " fear 
the Lord, and worship their graven images." 
They cannot " pass by a particle of shining 
dust, without kneeling and cringing before it !" 
Gold is their god ! At the altar of this idol, 
they offer their morning and evening sacrifice. 
Many are ambitious of the honours of this world, 
careless and forgetful of, nay even despising, 
" the honour that is of God." They too are idol- 
aters. Temptations to apostacy from God still 
abound, and always will abound, so long as the 
world lieth in wickedness, and so long as the 
carnal mind retains its enmity against God ! 

It is worthy of remark, that the moral desola- 
tion which covered the vineyard of the Lord with 
blight, in the season preceding the reformation 
effected by Samuel, Saul, and David, must be 
ascribed to a neglect on the part of Israel to 
carry out the commands of Jehovah. The peo- 
ple of God had been repeatedly charged to drive 
out all the idolatrous nations from Canaan — not 
to rest until they were every one expelled — but, 
after the greater part of this work had been ac- 



conclusion. 181 

com pli shed, and their strongest foes had been 
subdued, their zeal relaxed, and several idolatrous 
tribes were suffered to retain their possessions. 
Ere long we find God's people mingling with 
them and intermarrying, and then, the next step 
was soon taken, " they forsook the Lord, and 
served Baal and Ashlaroth." This presents an 
important caution to the Christian. Let him be- 
ware of the idolatrous Jebusites, who still lurk 
in the fastnesses of his heart, and see to it that 
he makes no compromise with sin, Down to the 
latest point of time, the injunction, " Watch and 
pray," needs to be s6unded in his ears, and the 
affectionate counsel of the beloved disciple should 
be graven on the heart, and bound as a frontlet 
between the eyes of every follower of Jesus — 
" Little children, keep yourselves from 
idols." 



CONTENTS, 





Page. 


Chapter I. 




Of Idolatry in general, 


- - 7 


Chapter II. 




Origin of Idolatry, - 


- 12 


Chapter III. 




Progress of Idolatry, - 


- 16 


Chapter IV. 




Diviners, ------ 


. 21 


Chapter V. 




Jugglers, Augurs, Magicians, Exorcists, 


. 31 


Chapter VI. 




Dealers with familiar Spirits, Wizards, Necromancers, 37 


Chapter VII. 




Oracles of the Heathen, 


- 44 


Chapter VIII. 




Priests, Sacrifices, Ceremonies, &c, of the Heathen, 49 


Chapter IX. 




Leading traditions of Heathen Mythology 


compared 


with Scripture, - - - - - 


55 



CONTENTS. 

Chapter X. 

Parallels from Mythology and Scripture, - • - 64 

Chapter. XI. 

Idol-gods of the Chaldseans, - - - - 69 

Chapter XII. 
Idol-gods of the Assyrians, Arabians, and Persians, 81 

Chapter XIII. 
Idol-gods of the Egyptians, ----- 91 

Chapter XIV. 
Idol-gods of Egypt, - - - - 103 

Chapter XV. 
Idol-gods of the Phoenicians, - - - - - 115 

Chapter XVI. 
Idol-gods of the Moabites, "Midianites, Sechemites, 
Ammonites, and Philistines, . - - - 132 

Chapter XVII. 
Idol-gods of the Syrians, - - - • - 143 

Chapter XVIII. 
Idol-gods of Greece and Rome, - - - - 150 

Chapter XIX. 
Idolatry of the People of God, - ■ - - 160 

Chapter XX. 
Conclusion, • - 177 



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